Lead Edge et al. in $82m series-C for Catawiki

The round featured capital from former members of Booking.com's management team, including Arthur Kosten, who already backed Catawiki's €10m series-B in April 2014 and sits on the company's board.

Catawiki, which focuses on the purchase and sale of vintage and unique items, claims to have seen a 300% uptick in sales figures and doubled its existing auction categories in the last year.

Having expanded from its Netherlands base to the UK, Belgium, Germany, Italy and Spain, the auctioneer now intends to speed up international growth by entering additional markets in Europe and worldwide. The company is looking to hire hundreds of professionals for software, auctioneering, sales and managing roles.

As part of the changes, Lead Edge operating partner Lorrie Norrington will work with Catawiki in an advisory capacity after holding managing roles at businesses including eBay.

According to unquote" data, the round is the largest witnessed in the Benelux growth capital scene so far in 2015. Aside from Catawiki, the most significant investment to date was in Luxembourg-based e-commerce business Global Fashion Group, backed with €32m by Tengelmann Ventures and Verlinvest in April 2015.

Previous funding
The current round comes one year after a €10m series-B for Catawiki. The investment, announced in April 2014, was the maiden deal in the Netherlands for London-headquartered Accel. Investing alongside the VC were Project A and entrepreneurs Arthur Kosten and Willem Sijthoff.

Company
Catawiki was created in 2008 by René Schoenmakers and Marco Jansen. In 2011, the company began organising online weekly auctions featuring more than 60 categories of unique, vintage and collectible items.

Headquartered in Assen, the Netherlands, the company runs operations in France, Germany, Belgium, the UK, Italy and Spain. Its workforce currently sits at 200 professionals, up from the 70 it employed in April 2014.

People
Lead Edge was represented by managing partner Mitchell Green. Meanwhile, Accel was represented by partner Michiel Kotting and Project A by managing director Uwe Horstmann – both having led their firms' investment in Catawiki's series-B in 2014. René Schoenmakers is CEO at Catawiki.

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• Benelux
• Expansion
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