This is the first deal announced by Zubr Capital after the launch of Fund II, its new investment fund, in 2022. A large investment of $13 million went to Oro, a well–known developer of software and applications for e-commerce in the B2B sector. Closure of the financing round involved the current investor Highland Europe.
Oro became the premier deal of Zubr Capital Fund II. Over the next 5 years, the fund is going to invest in the IT sector and assist companies from Eastern Europe with the necessary competencies to enable them to enter European and US markets. The fund’s strategy, as stated by its creators after the launch of the fund, envisages the purchase of a minority stake. The majority stake will remain with the owner of the business.
We are thrilled by the opportunity to contribute to Oro’s future innovations by paving the way for them with new investments. When establishing Zubr Capital Fund II, we, the fund’s contributors, resolved that we would support projects from the IT sector with a strong potential that develop their business in the US and Western Europe, – Oleg Khusaenov, Zubr Capital’s CEO, commented on the deal. – Essentially, the company must demonstrate pronounced stable growth and be managed by a team of talented entrepreneurs who understand how to scale up their business and do so relying on an efficient model. Oro meets all the necessary criteria, which is why it caught our eye.
Oro was founded by Yoav Katner together with two other co-founders in 2012 in Los Angeles. This happened after Yoav left Magento, which he had sold to eBay for $180 million in 2011. In 2018, Magento was bought for $1.68 billion by Adobe and renamed Adobe Commerce.
Oro features a set of applications for the automation of business in B2B companies that mainly include manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, and wholesale dealers. Oro has already introduced a number of solutions for them, such as OroCommerce, OroCRM, OroPlatform, and OroMarketplace, launched recently. The company has been on the market for 10 years and shows stable growth. In 2021 alone, its sales grew by 77% and amounted to $ 1.7 billion, while the number of its customers hit 1.2 million users, increasing by an impressive 80%.
According to Oro’s CEO Yoav Kutner, over the course of its existence, the platform helped hundreds of companies to fulfil their potential, enter global markets, and develop efficient e-commerce strategies focused on customer needs. Thanks to the new volume of investments, Oro will be able to unlock great opportunities for development for many years to come.
AT A GLANCE:
Zubr Capital Fund II is the third fund in the history of the Zubr Capital investment company. The fund’s investors include successful European entrepreneurs who have spent many years living and working in Western Europe, Israel, Cyprus, and the UK.
The portfolio of its predecessor Zubr Capital Fund I, included 14 companies in the e-commerce, classified, fintech, EduTech, Adtech, IT-service, and other domains. Among the fund’s best-known investments is Palta, the developer of health & wellness applications (Flo, Simple).
This fund management company can also boast several successful international exits. Thus, at the beginning of 2021, Zubr Capital sold 100% of its shares of the Targetprocess IT company to Apptio, a large American corporation
