La Nevera Roja has been the talk of the town for a week. The startup founded by José del Barrio and Íñigo Juantegui was acquired by Rocket Internet for, reportedly, €80 million. Many have wondered how a company that had raised €10 million, wasn’t profitable and with unnoficial revenues of €2 million could attract so much attention by a food delivery juggernaut such as Rocket Internet/Foodpanda.
Many considered the price to be absurd, others still don’t believe that the deal was all in cash (with perhaps a small quantity of Rocket shares) and the vast majority still believe Rocket paid too much.
Who knows if that’s true.
What’s certainly true is that La Nevera Roja has become a very important exit in the history of the Spanish startup scene. One only surpassed by deals that took place in the first wave of Spanish entrepreneurship (eresMas, Olé) and by a handful of others that belong to our time (Tuenti, Milanuncios, eDreams, Infojobs, Softonic or Arsys).
It’s an interesting coincidence that La Nevera Roja’s acquisition took place only three months later than Trovit’s, which was bought by Next CO. for the exactly same amount of money: €80 million.
Two companies that grew in a very different way, based on different models, but that in the end both were able to create a significant amount of value to its founders, investors and the Spanish community in general.
The table below highlights these differences:
There are many paths to exit and the traditional rules of how to create founder/investor value are there to be broken. And they have been smashed.
