traded as fwb rket industry online retailing venture capital founded 2007 ; 9 years ago 2007 founder marc oliver and alexander samwer headquarters berlin germany area served world key people oliver samwer ceo peter kimpel cfo alexander kudlich group managing director number of employees 300 2015 incl . ventures 30 000 website www.rocket internet.com rocket internet se is a german internet company headquartered in berlin . the company builds online startups and owns shareholdings in various models of internet retail businesses . 2 3 the company model is known as a startup studio or a venture builder . 4 it provides office space to new companies at its headquarters in berlin with it support marketing services and access to investors . the company aims to operate outside the us and china . 5 as of 2016 rocket internet has more than 30 000 employees across its worldwide network of companies which consists of over 100 entities active in 110 countries . 6 7 contents 1 history 2 the network of companies 3 controversy 4 see also 5 references 6 further reading history edit rocket internet headquarter building in berlin . the company was founded in berlin in 2007 by three brothers marc oliver and alexander samwer 8 and was once also connected to the european founders fund an associated company . in 2008 rocket internet founded zalando 9 inspired by us online retailer zappos.com . 10 on july 1 2014 rocket internet changed its legal form from a gmbh private limited company to an ag public limited company . 11 the initial public offering took place on october 2 2014 at the frankfurt stock exchange . the company is listed in the entry standard . on march 18 2015 the company changed its legal form into an se societas europaea . 12 in mid april global founders held 38.1 % in rocket internet kinnevik 13.2 % united internet 8.3 % baillie gifford 6.8 % philippine long distance telephone company 6.1 % and access industries 6.0 % . holtzbrinck ventures held a 1.8 % share with main investors holding shares of 3.4 % ; 16.3 % was held in free float . 13 the company s market capitalization was 3.151 billion euros in october 10 2016 . 14 in 2015 rocket internet announced to move into a new berlin headquarter . the former gsw headquarter designed by sauerbruch hutton is located kreuzberg and received a stirling prize nomination in 2000 . the network of companies edit rocket internet follows the strategy of building companies on the basis of proven internet based business models . according to rocket internet s financial statements the company especially concentrates on food & groceries fashion home & living and travel . in addition to the companies in the five industry sectors rocket internet owns stakes in companies at varying maturity stages ranging from recently launched models to companies that are in the process of establishing leadership positions or still expanding their geographic reach . rocket internet s investments include shares in the following companies 15 16 carmudi carspring delivery hero easy taxi foodpanda hellofresh jabong jumia jumia market lazada lendico nestpick printvenue spotcap westwing wimdu zalando controversy edit the company has been criticised for its copycat strategy of founding startups which replicate the business models of other established successful companies . 2 in 2011 20 of the then 130 employees left rocket internet at the same time . 17 18 according to media coverage at the time the reason for this string of layoffs was bad quality of new products and a gruff manner towards employees in the course of rocket internet s expansion into a large corporation . the former rocket internet managers subsequently went on to found the incubator project a ventures with help from the otto group . 19 questions have also been raised around rocket s support of multiple competing companies in a particular business sector . rocket internet s original backing of both take eat easy and delivery hero was questioned when take eat easy was forced into liquidation in july 2016 . 20 see also edit list of business incubators venture builders references edit zalando.de site info . alexa internet . retrieved 2014 06 19 . a b copycat business model generates genuine global success for start up incubator . global founders capital new 150m vc fund from rocket internet s samwer brothers . venturevillage . how venture builders are changing the startup model . venturebeat . about rocket internet . rocket internet.com . the e commerce icarus . handelsblatt.com . http www.economist.com news special report 21593586 how build companies kit rocket machine ryan mac 31 july 2014 . germany s samwer brothers to become billionaires with rocket internet ipo . forbes . jaff diana ; riedel saskia 8 december 2010 . werbung f8r adam und eva zielgruppengerechte ansprache durch gender marketing communication . wiley vch . p. 215 . isbn 978 3 527 50549 4 . retrieved 13 september 2011 . bloomberg businessweek ; 3 5 2012 issue 4269 p74 80 6p 5 color photographs 30 things you should know about oliver samwer ceo rocket internet eu startups . eu startups.com . brief rocket internet changes legal form and transforms into societas europaea . reuters . investors rocket internet . rocket internet.com . rket xetra stock quote rocket internet se . bloomberg . https www.rocket internet.com sites default files investors annual % 20financial % 20statement % 20and % 20combined % 20management % 20report % 202015.pdf https www.rocket internet.com companies falk hedemann . samwer klon schmiede verliert massiv f hrungspersonal . t3n magazin . umbruch bei rocket internet mitten im wandel zum globalen internetkonzern geht fast das komplette f hrungsteam . deutsche startups.de . erste eindr cke von project a ventures . gr nderszene magazin in german . o hear steve . european restaurant delivery startup take eat easy ceases trading as it tries to find a buyer . techcrunch . retrieved 2016 08 05 . further reading edit startup sacrilege for the underdog entrepreneur . retrieved 29 april 2015 . steve o hear . rocket internet acquires restaurant delivery service volo . techcrunch . aol . retrieved 29 april 2015 . rocket internet buys food delivery startup volo . pymnts.com . retrieved 29 april 2015 . ingrid lunden . rocket internet fashion group gfg raises 35m poaches amazon exec to lead it . techcrunch . aol . retrieved 29 april 2015 . steve o hear . rocket internet backs european restaurant delivery service take eat easy . techcrunch . aol . retrieved 29 april 2015 . foundations of marketing . retrieved 29 april 2015 . rocket internet acquires dutch couponing company imbull . dod news . retrieved 15 december 2015 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title rocket internet & oldid 743686769 categories internet companies of germanycompanies based in berlingerman companies established in 2008societates europaeaebusiness incubators of germanyhidden categories cs1 german language sources de pages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutschespa olfran aisitalianomagyaroccitansvenskat rk e edit links this page was last modified on 10 october 2016 at 18 36 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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