High-Tech Gründerfonds invests in Stuffle, the flea market app

 Second financing round within a few weeks: after SEDO founder Tim Schumacher, HTGF invests in Stuffle

Eight months after being launched, Hamburg-based start-up Stuffle (https://stuffle.it) has closed its second financing round. Following SEDO founder Tim Schumacher’s six-figure investment just a few weeks before, High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) is now joining as well. HTGF is acquiring a minority shareholding for a mid six-figure amount.

“We were convinced by the Stuffle concept: Innovative, easy to use, social and interactive with real added value to the user. We believe that this combination has the potential to re-segment the business of classifieds,” explains Andreas Quauke, Senior Investment Manager with HTGF. Morten Hartmann, founder and managing director of Stuffle, says: “HTGF has a strong network and focuses on young technology companies. We are very happy about the financing enabling us to promote the continued growth of Stuffle. The next step will be the Android version we’re releasing at the beginning of 2013.“

Stuffle: A mobile flea market on the road to success

Rummage around, find bargains and pounce: Stuffle offers all the advantages of a flea market in one app. Gone are the times of having to set up your stand in the early morning rain. You can now do it comfortably by smartphone from your couch: Take a photo, write a short description, enter the price and you’re done. The concept from Hamburg-based incubator Digital Pioneers (https://digital-pioneers.com) is just that easy. The app was downloaded just under 150,000 times in just a few months and has consistently been one of the top apps in the lifestyle category of the App Store. No matter if it’s a life-size figure of Batman or a designer handbag from Chloë – the value of goods that have found a new owner via Stuffle is approximately four million euros. Even the editors of the iTunes App Store seem to be Stuffle fans: They’ve just chosen the app as one of the best new releases of 2012.

About Stuffle
Stuffle is the flea market for your smartphone. The mobile app allows you to buy and sell your treasured and used items and the stuff lying around that you don’t need any more – just like a real flea market. Putting up an offer is quick and easy: Posting a picture, a short description and a price is all you have to do to reach thousands of users. Buyers find available offers based on the distance to your location: They rummage through a collection of large and informative pictures. The location accurate to 500 metres, price and other information is available in detail view. Buyers and sellers can exchange further information, negotiate the price and organize pick-up via private messages.

Stuffle is currently available in English and German with more languages to come. The app is currently available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch; an Android version will be added soon. Stuffle was founded in Hamburg in 2012 and currently employs a staff of 15. The flea market for the smartphone has more than 70,000 users and has received multiple awards. Such as bronze in the Lead Award 2012 the best German-language iPhone App or gold in the Lovie Award 2012 in the “Mobile Innovation” category. Additional information available at https://stuffle.it.

Press contact:
Stephanie Schmidt
Griffel & Co. Kommunikation GmbH
Forsmannstr. 8 b
22303 Hamburg, Germany
Phone: +49 (0)40 – 6094586-00
E-mail: sts@griffel-co.com

About High-Tech Gruenderfonds
High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests in young, high potential high-tech start-ups. The seed financing provided is designed to enable start-ups to take an idea through prototyping and to market launch. Typically, High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests EUR 500,000 in the seed stage, with the potential for up to a total of EUR 2 million per portfolio company in follow-on financing. Investors in this public/private partnership include the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, the KfW Banking Group, as well as seventeen commercial enterprises ALTANA, BASF, B. Braun, Robert Bosch, CEWE Color, Daimler, Deutsche Post DHL, Deutsche Telekom, Evonik, media + more venture Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG, METRO, Qiagen, RWE Innogy, SAP, Tengelmann and Carl Zeiss. High-Tech Gruenderfonds has about EUR 573,5 million under management in two funds (EUR 272 million HTGF I, EUR 301,5 million HTGF II).

Contact:
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Stefanie Zillikens
Schlegelstraße 2
53113 Bonn
Tel:  + 49 228 / 82 30 01-00
Fax:  + 49 228 / 82 30 00-50
info@htgf.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de