Robert Gentz & David Schneider
Zalando
European online fashion retailer · Berlin, Germany
The founder
Robert Gentz and David Schneider met as students at WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management. Inspired by the sale of German social network StudiVZ, they built a Zappos-style online shoe store with seed backing and engineering resources from Rocket Internet’s Samwer brothers, launching Zalando in 2008 and expanding it across Europe. Both remained co-CEOs for years after the IPO, later joined by a third co-CEO.
How it was taken public
Zalando listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on October 1, 2014, pricing at €21.50 a share for a €4.9 billion valuation (roughly $6.2–6.8B depending on the exchange rate used) — at the time the largest German tech IPO since Deutsche Telekom’s 2000 listing, and a landmark for Rocket Internet’s startup-incubation model.
Sourced & verified
In the news
Coverage of the Zalando deal from independent outlets — read the original reporting, not just our summary.