Rocket Internet has lost nearly $700m this year

Billionaire Rocket Internet founder Oliver Samwer at a conference in 2013. Photo credit: Wikipedia.

German startup factory Rocket Internet today announced a loss of US$691 million across its portfolio companies, blaming troubles at its Global Fashion Group (GFG), of which Zalora is a part, for the results.

Its fashion ecommerce startups were valued at a collective US$1.1 billion in July, a steep decline from a lofty valuation of US$3.5 billion in 2015. GFG’s revenue for the first six months of the year dropped dramatically to US$32.5 million as compared to US$79.5 million in the corresponding part of 2015.

The plan is still to turn profitable by the end of 2017.

In a statement, Rocket Internet said GFG contributed negative US$429 million to the overall results.

Rocket’s loss is just over half of the US$1.2 billion that Uber lost in the same period.

These turbulent times have bit into Rocket’s share price, which is down 33 percent this year.

Rocket Internet explained the results were impacted by fair value adjustments and impairments but didn’t provide any more details. The company’s full earnings report for the first half of the year is due out September 22.

“Despite these special items, we remain committed to our goals”, said Oliver Samwer, CEO of Rocket Internet in a statement. “We still expect at least three of our selected portfolio companies to turn profitable by the end of 2017, and that the aggregate EBITDA losses of the selected portfolio companies will have peaked in 2015.“

Converted from Euro. US$1 = EUR 0.89.