Tracking Tiger Global (Week 2) | 10.01-16.01.22
9 announced deals ranging from $486m Series D to $25m Series A
Dear subscribers,
Welcome to the latest edition of Tracking Tiger Global, a newsletter that provides weekly updates on Tiger Global’s latest investments. This Substack started as a “joke” but has turned into an interesting learning opportunity for me as I get to learn about awesome tech companies across sectors and geographies while tracking Tiger Global. Please note that the newsletter is not affiliated with Tiger Global and any of its portfolio companies and other entities mentioned below.
9 new deals with Tiger’s involvement were reported in the w/c 10 Jan.
Checkout.com (UK | $450m Series D | Fintech | Tiger led)
Qonto (France | €486m Series D | Fintech | Tiger co-led)
Ankorstore (France | €250m Series C | Marketplace | Tiger co-led)
Highspot (UK | $248m Series F | SaaS | Tiger participated)
Tul (Columbia | $181m Series B | E-commerce | Tiger participated)
SeekOut (US | $115m Series C | SaaS | Tiger led)
Flipdish (Ireland | $100m Series C | SaaS | Tiger participated)
Refyne (India | $82m Series B | Fintech | Tiger led)
Accrue Savings (US | $25m Series A | Fintech | Tiger led)
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Checkout.com (UK | $450m Series D | Fintech | Tiger led)
Founded in 2012 and headquartered in the UK, Checkout.com is a global payments processor. It raised $1bn in Series D funding at a $40bn valuation with primary investors including Altimeter, Dragoneer, Franklin Templeton, GIC, Insight Partners, the Qatar Investment Authority, Tiger Global, the Oxford Endowment Fund and another large west coast mutual fund manager.
“Checkout.com offers a full-stack online platform that simplifies payments processes for large global enterprise merchants. It provides fast and reliable payments in more than 150 currencies, with in-country acquiring, fraud filters and reporting through one API. Checkout.com can accept all major international credit and debit cards, as well as popular alternative and local payment methods.”
Checkout sees Web3 as a generation-defining opportunity. “The company’s payment rails already power the world’s leading crypto exchanges, representing almost 80% of the global trading volume. Its modular products and resilient platform are also used by fan token providers like Socios.com and blockchain-based wallets like Novi from Meta. In addition, the company is privately beta-testing an innovative solution to settle transactions for merchants using digital currencies.”
“Given the company has been profitable for several years, the Series D capital will strengthen an already solid balance sheet and drive three key initiatives: its ambitious growth plans for the US market; the continued evolution of its proprietary technology platform and solutions; and its goal to remain on the cutting edge of Web3.”
Sources: Press release
Qonto (France | €486m Series D | Fintech | Tiger co-led)
Founded in 2017 and headquartered in France, Qonto is a leading European business finance solution. It raised €486m in Series D funding at a €4.4bn valuation, co-led by TCV and Tiger Global.
“Since its launch in France in 2017, Qonto has been committed to building the first all-in-one finance solution for SMEs and freelancers. Qonto simplifies everything from everyday banking and financing to bookkeeping and spend management. The company currently has more than 220,000 clients across four markets (France, Germany, Italy, and Spain).
With this new funding round, Qonto’s ambition is to become the finance solution of choice for one million European SMEs and freelancers by 2025.”
Sources: TCV
Ankorstore (France | €250m Series C | Marketplace | Tiger co-led)
Founded in 2019 and headquartered in France, Ankorstore is a wholesale marketplace in Europe. It raised €250m in Series C funding at a €1.75bn post-money valuation, co-led by Bond and Tiger Global.
According to Siliconrepublic, “Ankorstore is a strong proponent of supporting local business and aims to connect neighbourhood retailers with independent shop owners and brands. […] “We think we’re closer to LinkedIn in the way we operate – it’s a network of professionals and we help them connect with each other,” co-founder and co-chief executive Nicolas Cohen told TechCrunch.”
Brands pay a commission of 10% on each transaction following a higher 20% commission on the first order through Ankorstore. “Retailers can pay up to 60 days after ordering something and there are no hidden fees for them. Essentially, Ankorstore helps retailers focus on curation, while the startup takes care of procurement.” “The startup already has a deal with UPS to help brands with shipping. But the company hasn’t done much when it comes to warehousing solutions for small brands. That’s another opportunity down the road.”
There are currently 200,000 retailers and 15,000 brands across 23 European markets on the platform.
Source: Techcrunch
Highspot (UK | $248m Series F | SaaS | Tiger participated)
Founded in 2012 and headquartered in the UK, Highspot is a sales enablement platform that increases the performance of sales teams. It raised $248m in Series F funding at a $3.5bn valuation, co-led by B Capital Group and D1 Capital Partners. Tiger Global and other existing investors participated in the round.
The “unified sales enablement platform gives revenue teams a single solution to elevate customer conversations and drive repeatable revenue, bringing together native content and guidance, training and coaching, and engagement intelligence – all supported by actionable analytics.” Product capabilities include:
Manage content: “Highspot reduces the time spent searching for content by up to 95% and streamlines marketing workflows to ensure content is on-brand, compliant, and always up to date.”
Guide sellers: “Highspot infuses guidance in every conversation with dynamic playbooks and AI-driven recommendations everywhere your sellers work.”
Onboard and Train: “Highspot surfaces the most helpful lessons and courses when and where your reps need them most”
Coach reps: “Pinpoint winning (and losing) behaviours across your sales organisation and give every rep actionable feedback on their approach.”
Engage customers: “Arm reps with the best content to land value through email, custom micro-portals, web conferencing, and more.”
The company has achieved tremendous growth.
Revenue grew 935% over the last three years
ARR net retention was greater than 130% over the last 12 months
Fortune 500 companies that have adopted Highspot include Aetna, Cardinal Health, Siemens, Staples, Yahoo, and more
Highspot connected more than eight million salespeople, channel partners, services reps, and customers in digital sales experiences last year (+150% YoY growth)
Sources: Press release
Tul (Columbia | $181m Series B | E-commerce | Tiger participated)
Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Columbia, Tul is a a mobile app and B2B e-commerce marketplace serving the supply chain of building materials. It raised $181m in Series B funding, co-led by 8VC and Avenir. Other investors include Tiger Global.
“Tul works as a B2B one-stop-shop of construction materials. The startup buys all sorts of construction items – “From A to Z, from screws to rebar,” Raposo said – from diverse suppliers and brands and resells this catalogue of products on its own e-commerce platform at competitive prices. Tul has its own large warehouses – at least one in each city where it is present – and is responsible for the entire logistics and last-mile delivery operation, with the promise of delivery within one day.
Through the Tul app, building material stores are able to make their inventory shopping on a single platform, eliminating from the process the contact with dozens of suppliers and the requirement of minimum order, a very common practice in this industry. In addition, the startup‘s customers have access to credit for the purchases and to the invoicing flow and order tracking until delivery.”
“Tul already has about 40,000 clients registered on the platform and has already handled $60 million in sales. The startup does not disclose its revenue.”
“It currently operates in five cities in Colombia, two cities in Ecuador, as well as in Mexico City and Guadalajara, Mexico with plans to ex"pand into Brazil and other Latin American markets.”
SeekOut (US | $115m Series C | SaaS | Tiger led)
Founded in 2016 and headquartered in the US, SeekOut is an AI-powered Talent 360 platform for enterprise talent optimisation that enables companies to quickly hire, grow and retain talent while focusing on diversity, technical expertise, and other hard-to-find skillsets. It raised $115m Series C funding at a $1.2bn valuation, led by Tiger Global.
SeekOut's AI-powered talent search engine enables Talent Acquisition teams to understand any talent pool and quickly find and engage the talent they need -- with a focus on diversity, technical expertise, and other hard-to-find skillsets
Over the past year, SeekOut has doubled its customer count to more than 1,000 enterprises, including six of the 10 most highly valued U.S. companies that leverage the platform for their talent needs.
Sources: Press release
Flipdish (Ireland | $100m Series C | SaaS | Tiger participated)
Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Ireland, Flipdish is an online ordering system for restaurants and takeaways. It raised €100m in Series C funding at a $1.25bn baluation, led by Tencent with participation from Tiger Global.
“Flipdish positions itself as an alternative to online fast-food delivery aggregators such as Just Eat, Deliveroo and Uber Eats by helping restaurant owners bring their online ordering capability in-house. The company provides software that allows direct ordering from restaurants via a “white label” app solution, enabling owners to retain control over business data while still tapping into the growing market for takeaways. The company charges a 7 per cent fee per order compared with up to 30 per cent from some rivals.
The new investment will be used to fuel international expansion and for research and development into additional products for businesses operating in the hospitality sector.”
Sources: Irish Times, Press release
Refyne (India | $82m Series B | Fintech | Tiger led)
Founded in 2020 and headquartered in India, Refyne is a platform that helps employees draw their salaries in demand. It raised $82m in new funding, led by Tiger Global.
According to Economic Times, “Earned Wage Access (EWA), also known as on-demand pay, enables employees to access a portion of their accumulated wages, ahead of their payday, with the remaining being paid on the regular salary day. For example, an employee earning Rs 30,000 a month can access Rs 10,000 in the middle of the month for an unforeseen expense and get the remaining salary at the end of the month.”
More than 150 firms — including Practo, TeamLease, Tenon, Shadowfax, Rebel Foods, Acko, BlackBuck, Arti Group and Cafe Coffee Day — are working with Refyne today to enable the service for their over 700,000 employees, Sharma said. The startup aims to serve 3 million workers by the end of the year and is also hiring in several roles.
Source: Economic Times, Techcrunch
Accrue Savings (US | $25m Series A | Fintech | Tiger led)
Founded in 2021 and headquartered in the US, Accrue Savings is a merchant-embedded shopping experience that rewards consumers for saving. It raised $25m in Series A funding, led Tiger Global.
“Accrue Savings is a payment options that empowers consumers to save for a purchase while earning cash incentive rewards from the brand along the way. Retailers can finally reward customers who choose saving over debt by making FDIC-insured cash contributions to a customer’s Accrue Savings account when customers meet milestones on their savings journey.
Brands that partner with Accrue Savings are seeing an immediate impact on their top-of-funnel marketing efforts. With Accrue Savings, retailers can engage with customers earlier in the consideration phase by offering a savings-based purchase plan on their website and in targeted email or SMS campaigns. By alleviating shopper concerns about debt-based payment plans partner retailers are reducing friction points between consumers and their purchases.
The new financing brings Accrue Savings’ total funding to nearly $30 million to date and will be used to expand retail partnerships and bolster hiring efforts across all departments, including engineering, sales and marketing.”
Sources: Press release