Kite Ventures and ru-Net Holdings Lead Latest Investment Round To Accelerate Growth
London, UK – 25th October 2011: Tradeshift, the business-to-business social network, announced today that it has secured $17 million in funding led by ru-Net Holdings and Kite Ventures. The round is also supported by existing investor Notion Capital, which increases its stake in the company. The latest round values Tradeshift at $137m, making this one of the largest investments in a European tech startup this year, while Notion’s increased stake reflects its belief in the growing opportunity. Tradeshift will use the investment to accelerate product development, expand the company into North America and further drive large enterprise adoption of the platform.
Based in Moscow, ru-Net and Kite Ventures are investors in some of the leading technology and internet companies in Europe. Both represent a new wave of European technology investors that focus on high tech and internet companies. Edward Shenderovich, Founder and Managing Director at Kite Ventures said: “Tradeshift is a young company, but has already had notable success with significant uptake amongst small businesses as well as an impressive roster of well-known enterprise customers. The company has created an offering that is clearly very attractive for businesses.”
Whether it is an organization like NHS that processes half a million invoices a year or one of the ten thousand suppliers it deals with, Tradeshift connects businesses of all sizes to help them work collaboratively and better manage tasks such as invoicing and cash flow, powered by the latest social technologies.
The investment will enable Tradeshift to expand operations into new territories early next year and focus on developing the platform’s functionality with an expanding range of complementary products. The most recent of these is Instant Payments, a service that gives Tradeshift users instant and early access to invoiced funds without having to wait for standard payment terms.
“Today’s news proves and accelerates Tradeshift’s mission to disrupt the traditional ways of doing business, as well as giving us a secure base from which to further expand and innovate,” said Christian Lanng, CEO and co-Founder at Tradeshift. “But we’re not just focused on launching products. With 60,000 companies in nearly 190 countries worldwide already using the platform, we’re committed to building the network and helping organizations shift the way they do business.”
~ ENDS ~
About Tradeshift
Tradeshift connects businesses on a secure online network to help them work collaboratively and manage tasks such as invoicing and cash flow. In the Tradeshift cloud, businesses create a network with their suppliers, customers and partners to streamline common business processes powered by the latest social technologies.
Launched in May 2010, Tradeshift already has 60,000 companies across 190 countries and is attracting 2,000 new users every week. Businesses on the Tradeshift platform include ASP NHS, the French Government, Kuehne+Nagel, TDC, DT Group and DSV. In 2010, Tradeshift was awarded Best Enterprise at The Techcrunch Europa awards and Most Innovative Solution by Financial-I.
Tradeshift is a UK Ltd company with offices in Copenhagen, London, San Francisco, Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam.
Tradeshift fundamentally shifts the way you do business. For more information, visit http://tradeshift.com/
About Notion Capital
Notion is a venture capital firm focused exclusively on the cloud computing and internet services sector. The partners are all proven entrepreneurs and operators, having founded and built a number of highly successful IT businesses, creating shareholder value of almost $1 billion. Notion helps companies to accelerate growth and realise their full potential through a combination of funding and deep sector knowledge and experience. Companies within Notion’s portfolio include Brightpearl, NewVoiceMedia and eSellerPro. For more information please visit: www.notioncapital.com
About Kite Ventures
Kite Ventures is a Moscow-based technology venture fund with a number of successful Internet investments in Russia and Europe, including SponsorPay, Pixonic, Zeptolab, Darberry (acquired by Groupon) and others.
About ru-Net
ru-Net is a leading Internet and IT investment company based in Russia with about 30 investments in a portfolio that spans Russia, Europe, North America and Southeast Asia. Chaired by life-long technology entrepreneur and long-term technology investor, Leonid Boguslavsky, ru-Net’s portfolio includes some exciting internet and IT companies such as Yandex, Russia’s #1 search company (symbol YNDX on NASDAQ), where ru-Net was the first investor, as well as Ozon and Biglion, the leading e-commerce and group buying companies in East and Central Europe.