Vivino: such a cool case from the beginning

Earlier this year Vivino had the pleasure of announcing their recent series B round of $25 Million and welcoming their new shareholder, Christophe Navarre.

When I first met Heini and Theis, Vivino had 12.000 users — Now they have 13 million global users. Heini and Theis has proven their worth and has executed perfectly.

When we invested in 2011 we didn’t invest in the first product, which honestly wasn’t very good (like with many other app’s) — But despite the fact that they hadn’t perfected the product the users kept coming. The Vivino case was perfect — they had traction, there was an unfulfilled need and the market was gigantic while the place as number 1 was up for grabs.

On top of that business angel, Janus Friis had already invested, which from an investors perspective is just a great validation.

The year after we first welcomed Swedish VC Creandum, who has become a close partner of ours, as a shareholder and just a couple of months later Balderton Capital with their extensive knowledge and network in the US. The series A investment in 2013 of $10.3 Million made it possible for Vivino to target the US market aggressively.

The investors and the incredible Vivino team has, for the past year, worked hard to establish a sensible business model and the knumbers are looking really good. Christophe Navarre has now also joined the Vivino team and with his insights and knowledge about the wine industry, Vivino is very well suited to continue their mission of heightening the experience of wine consumption and purchase for the average user.

I am very proud of Heini and Theis and the rest of Vivino and I am immensely hopeful as to what the future will bring.