CHRONO24: Euro 100 million Series‑C led by General Atlantic

Karls­ruhe, Germany — Chrono24, a leading global online market­place for new and pre-owned luxury watches, announ­ced that it has secu­red more than €100 million ($118+ million) in its Series C finan­cing round. The round was led by Gene­ral Atlan­tic, a leading global growth capi­tal inves­tor, with parti­ci­pa­tion from Aglaé Ventures, the tech­no­logy arm of the Arnault family’s invest­ment company. Exis­ting inves­tors Insight Part­ners and Sprints Capi­tal also parti­ci­pa­ted in the round.

Toge­ther with this latest mino­rity growth finan­cing, Chrono24 has raised a total of over €200 million (appro­xi­m­ately $236 million) in funding to date.

Chrono24 plans to use the freshly raised capi­tal to acce­le­rate its growth trajec­tory and further expand inter­na­tio­nally, build its presence in exis­ting markets and streng­then its global team with addi­tio­nal top talent. The company is alre­ady the market leader in over 100 count­ries. The plan is to further improve the user expe­ri­ence of the online market­place in order to bene­fit even more from the flou­ris­hing market for pre-owned luxury watches and to opti­mally serve a new gene­ra­tion of collectors.

Foun­ded in 2003, Chrono24 pionee­red the digi­tiza­tion of the tradi­tio­nally analog luxury watch indus­try: it was one of the first major compa­nies to bring toge­ther watch retail­ers and coll­ec­tors around the world through its online market­place. Today, the plat­form has an average of 500,000 unique visi­tors per day. With more than 3,000 dealers and 30,000 private sellers in over 100 count­ries world­wide, Chrono24 carries appro­xi­m­ately half a million luxury watches for sale at any given time.

Jörn Niko­lay, Mana­ging Direc­tor and respon­si­ble for Gene­ral Atlan­tic’s German busi­ness, says: “Since its foun­ding in 2003, Chrono24 has evol­ved from Karls­ruhe into a global pioneer in crea­ting a cross-border online market­place for luxury watches, with an inno­va­tive model based on trans­pa­rency and sustaina­bi­lity. We are plea­sed to support Chrono24 with our capi­tal and exper­tise as it conti­nues its global expansion.”

Tim Stra­cke, Co-CEO of Chrono24, adds: “Once again, Chrono24 has succee­ded in attrac­ting first-class growth inves­tors such as Gene­ral Atlan­tic and Aglaé Ventures as part­ners. We have initia­ted the concept of an online market­place for luxury watches and built a plat­form that supports and encou­ra­ges chan­ging consu­mer beha­vior. Chrono24 provi­des proof to an indus­try that has tradi­tio­nally always shied away from disrup­tion that such a concept works perfectly. We are very plea­sed that Gene­ral Atlan­tic and Aglaé Ventures reco­gnize the huge market poten­tial of digi­tiz­ing luxury retail and also our role within this industry.”

Chrono24 conti­nues to be led by its foun­der and co-CEO Tim Stra­cke, co-CEO (and former CEO of Team­Viewer) Holger Felg­ner and CFO Stephan Knie­was­ser. In addi­tion to the new inves­tor group, a majo­rity of the exis­ting share­hol­ders, inclu­ding Felg­ner and Knie­was­ser, also co-inves­­ted. This new round of finan­cing follows Chrono24’s Series B in 2019, which raised €43 million from Sprints Capi­tal, Gianni Serazzi, a former Riche­mont direc­tor, and Alberto Grignolo, foun­der of YOOX-NET-A-PORTER, among others. Previously, Round A in 2015 had gene­ra­ted over €37 million in seve­ral steps, inclu­ding from Insight Partners.

About Chrono24

“Chrono24 — The World’s Watch Market” is a leading global online market­place for luxury watches since 2003. With appro­xi­m­ately 500,000 watches from more than 3,000 dealers from over 100 count­ries and over 30,000 private sellers, the portal reaches more than nine million unique visi­tors per month. In 2020, Chrono24 achie­ved growth in tran­sac­tion volume of over 30% with monthly purchase inqui­ries in the six-digit range. With a large combi­ned global offe­ring of new, used and vintage watches, Chrono24 offers a compre­hen­sive service port­fo­lio that allows buyers and sellers to conduct their tran­sac­tions in a trus­ted envi­ron­ment. The global support team provi­des assis­tance via email or phone in 15 diffe­rent languages. Chrono24 was foun­ded in 2003 and employs nearly 400 people in its offices in Karls­ruhe, Berlin, New York and Hong Kong. www.chrono24.com

Gene­ral Atlantic

Gene­ral Atlan­tic is a leading global growth capi­tal inves­tor that provi­des capi­tal and stra­te­gic support to compa­nies with high growth poten­tial. Foun­ded in 1980, the company combi­nes a colla­bo­ra­tive global approach, indus­­try-speci­­fic exper­tise, a long-term invest­ment hori­zon and a deep under­stan­ding of growth drivers with outstan­ding manage­ment teams to create excep­tio­nal busi­ness models world­wide. Gene­ral Atlantic’s team includes more than 175 invest­ment profes­sio­nals in New York, Amster­dam, Beijing, Green­wich, Hong Kong, Jakarta, London, Mexico City, Mumbai, Munich, Palo Alto, São Paulo, Shang­hai and Singa­pore. www.generalatlantic.com

About Aglaé Ventures

Aglaé Ventures is an inter­na­tio­nal invest­ment company based in Paris, New York and Los Ange­les. It is supported by Agache, the holding company of the Arnault family and majo­rity share­hol­der of LVMH, the world leader in luxury goods. For nearly 30 years, Agache has supported fast-growing inno­va­tive compa­nies at all stages of their deve­lo­p­ment, inclu­ding Auto­mat­tic, Back­Mar­ket, Mano Mano and Noom in recent months. https://aglaeventures.com/