WeTransfer, the Amsterdam-headquartered company that is best known for its file-sharing service, has announced a €35 million secondary funding round. CORPTECH represented WeTransfer in this transaction. The investment is led by European growth equity firm, HPE Growth, with significant participation from existing investor Highland Europe.
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Wetransfer's press release:
After six years of profitability, WeTransfer pursued a secondary funding round, in which some existing stakeholders' shares were sold, to tap into the teams at HPE and Highland Europe and their experience building high-growth companies. Jonne de Leeuw, of HPE, will replace WeTransfer co-founder Nalden on the company’s Supervisory Board, joining Bas Beerens (Founder, WeTransfer), Irena Goldenberg (Highland Europe) and Tony Zappalà (Highland Europe).
Founded in 2009 as a well-designed file sharing service for the creative community, WeTransfer prioritizes ‘offline’ values, such as trust, transparency, and ethics. Its tools help creative people without breaking their flow. In addition to launching mobile app Collect (4M monthly users), last year, WeTransfer acquired immersive sketching tool Paper® (25M downloads) and collaborative presentation tool Paste® (40,000 active teams) and expanded its US presence from LA to New York City.
The original file transfer product has driven WeTransfer’s growth to over 50M users, who send more than a billion files each month. Leveraging HPE's expertise, WeTransfer will emphasize recruiting the best talent to develop its tools faster.
"The opportunity to partner with HPE was too good to miss,” says Gordon Willoughby, CEO of WeTransfer. “Our ambition is to be behind every great idea, and since acquiring Paper and Paste we’ve seen rapid adoption of our tools globally. HPE recognize the value we provide and want to help us continue to scale quickly. We have an exciting product road map for the autumn, so having HPE join us, together with Highland Europe, gives us the stability and skills we need.”
Jonne de Leeuw, HPE, says: “WeTransfer has demonstrated tremendous organic growth since inception, and has developed a committed, loyal following, particularly amongst the global creative community. We’re keen to provide the resources and support to help the company further build and refine its unique product strategy and market position. We see an opportunity for the company to address an even broader audience, while continuing to grow profitably at scale.”
“Highland Europe saw WeTransfer’s potential at an early stage and we’re thrilled to deepen our involvement today. Last year’s acquisition of Paper and Paste, plus the development of powerful new user tools, solidifies WeTransfer’s leadership.” - Irena Goldenberg, Highland Europe.
About HPE Growth
Established in 2010, HPE Growth is a leading European investment firm focused on expansion/growth capital investments in technology companies throughout Northwestern Europe with committed capital in excess of EUR 500 million. HPE invests in high-growth software, internet-enabled, mobile and fintech businesses that have the option to further leverage their proven technology. Typically, HPE aims to deploy about EUR 10 to 40 million in equity per transaction. By bringing in additional equity and active support, HPE acts as a catalyst to expansion and enables portfolio companies, such as Tiqets, Uberall, eGym and PPRO, to execute on their vision of securing market leadership. For more information about HPE Growth, please visit: www.hpegrowth.com.
About Highland Europe
Highland Europe invests in exceptional growth-stage software and internet companies. Active in Europe since 2003 as Highland Capital Partners and formally launched in 2012, Highland Europe has raised over €1 billion and has invested in companies such as Adjust, ContentSquare, eGym, Featurespace, GetYourGuide, Huel, Malwarebytes, MatchesFashion, NewVoiceMedia, Nexthink, Smartly.io, Wolt and Zwift. Highland’s collective history of investments across the US, Europe and China includes 46 IPOs and 19 billion-dollar-plus companies. To learn more, visit:www.highlandeurope.com.