Rocket Internet’s social gifting service DropGifts is increasing the pressure on the Swedish startup it cloned after reports that T-Venture, the VC investment arm of telco giant Deutsche Telekom, has become its third investor. According to Deutsche Startups, the financing round – which also includes eVenture Capital Partners and New Enterprise Associates – is worth a seven-digit figure.
Silicon Allee first revealed in February how Rocket, the Samwer brothers’ investment vehicle, had been developing DropGifts along the same line as Wrapp. Hjalmar Winbladh, CEO and co-founder of Wrapp, later hit out at DropGifts and other clones, vowing to stay on top by being innovative. Most recently, the Swedish firm revealed its intentions to take on the Samwers on their home turf by launching in Germany.
That will certainly be a tough ask – according to the report, DropGifts already has 75 employees worldwide and is active in 12 countries including the UK, the US and Brazil after just six months, and will soon be introducing a “comprehensive relaunch and many new features.”
Wrapp enables users to send Facebook friends free gifts and gift cards. It teamed up with companies including O’Neill, Lieferando and Marc O’Polo for the German launch last month. The friend-to-friend marketing platform was launched in Sweden in November and has since spread to companies including the UK, the US, Norway, Finland and the Netherlands.
By June, 300,000 users had given their Facebook friends 2.2 million free and paid gifts and gift cards to be redeemed in stores operated by around 90 major European and American retailers.
For DropGifts, meanwhile, Deutsche Startups reports that the financing round is set to be officially announced in the next few days, while the relaunch will include a cleaner user interface, a clearer separation between free and paid gift cards and more personalisation options. There will also be a broadening of its product offering, which at the moment includes brands like Amazon, Cinemaxx and Zalando.