When we talked to Deporvillage’s CEO Xavier Pladellorens in February, he mentioned the fact that the outdoors ecommerce company had only raised €300,000 to date. “We try to be as capital efficient as possible”, he said, while adding that they had basically “bootstrapped the company since then”.
Despite being market leaders in Spain, it seems as if the company has higher objectives and wants to compete head to head with other online stores in markets like Italy and France, where it’s already present, and possibly to continue expanding throughout Europe.
In order to achieve that, the company is now announcing a €2.5 million round led by Samaipata Ventures. Mediaset España also participates through its media for equity fund, Ad4Ventures. Previous investors like Cabiedes & Partners and business angels also contributed to the round.
Samaipata Ventures is a new fund -as far as we know this is its first investment- led by Jose del Barrio, one of the co-founders of La Nevera Roja, which was acquired by Rocket Internet earlier this year for €80 million. Del Barrio and his co-founder, Iñigo Juantegui, left the company soon after its acquisition and have now embarked on new adventures.
We understand that Iñigo is working on a new startup while he starts his career as a business angel, having just backed Barcelona-based eHealth startup Medtep.
The ties to La Nevera Roja don’t end here. Ad4Ventures was also an investor in the food delivery startup and, according to our sources, had a 10% stake when it was sold.
“This new fundraise will bring us to the ‘champions league’ of European sporting retailers thanks to the involvement of La Nevera Roja’s founder and Mediaset’s capabilities”, Xavier said in a statement.
Look for Deporvillage ads on TV in the next few months and for a faster and more aggressive expansion strategy. “We’re aware this is a market defined by sales volume and we’re positioning ourselves as clear leaders in a certain number of markets”, Xavier told us a few months ago.
Deporvillage had sales of €6.4 million in 2014, an 80% year-on-year increase.