We recently led the Series-A financing of RedPoints, a Barcelona based company. This marks our third investment in Barcelona after Badi and Wallapop and confirms our long running suspicion: the Barcelona tech ecosystem is for real…..a plethora of companies are being started, angel investors are abundant and importantly, the ecosystem has produced exits such as Privalia and Trovit.
RedPoints is the brainchield of Josep Coll and David Casellas and aims to revolutionize the way companies combat Brand and Copyright piracy. The problem is huge, global and growing and brands seem to have given up, almost accepting the inevitability of piracy. It is precisely this defeatism that we want to change. More specifically, here is what got us excited about RedPoints:
A massive market. According to the OECD, the global value of counterfeit and pirated products reached $930 billion annually in 2013, so its fair to say that in 2016 we’ve probably passed the $1 trillion mark. Yes, the $1 trillion problem looking for a solution.
Automation. The company’s insatiable commitment to counterfeit and piracy detection, remediation and removal automation stood out from the first time we met and became the leitmotif of our entire analysis. The ability to automate an otherwise painfully manual process was to much for us to resist.
Rock-star CEO. Laura Urquizu joined the company one year ago to scale the business. The results have been nothing short of spectacular. Laura exudes the kind of passion, drive and desire for success that is infectuous and that we love to find in business leaders.
Customers traction. Early traction has been astounding with more than 200 paying customers coming from a variety of industries and accross a broad geography. More importantly, the onboarding experience has proven to be exceptional and this has driven measurable results particularly as it relates to customer life-time-value and churn.
Technology. The company is building the world’s first fully automated Saas platform offering Copyright/Brand Protection and mitigation services. For the first time, customers have immediacy, transparency, knowledge and tangible results. They feel like they finally have the tools to fight the fight.
My partner David will sit on the company's board and bring Mangrove's "out of the box" thinking to the table. He will also be the company's greatest cheerleader. We look forward to an explosive ride…