Failure to launch: 5 Rocket Internet misfires

Rocket Internet, to employ a tried-and-true cliche, is a company that many tech industry watchers love to hate. On the surface, one can easily accuse the German accelerator of copying promising US or European ventures and racing to build up twin projects in emerging markets, with the ultimate goal of getting acquired. Defenders will argue that no company can claim to be truly innovative, and that entrepreneurship is about execution rather than inspiration.

While the tech industry loves to keep an eye on Rocket Internet, following its progress can be tricky. The company will routinely launch projects quietly, informing the media months after the fact. And if executives decide said projects aren’t worth maintaining after all, they’ll just as quietly disappear. Often, news of a closure will only make its way to journalists in the form of layoff rumors that appear in German-language media.

Below we’ve catalogued five Rocket Internet projects that failed to pick up speed in Asia. It’s worth noting that some were abandoned after a formal rollout, while others fizzled out before even reaching full realization. In addition, these misfires went under not necessarily because they failed to approach sustainability, but because they failed to reach the targets that Rocket set for them. That could mean that the numbers were good by startup standards but not good enough by Rocket standards.

Officefab

• Industry: online office supply retail
• Birth: June 2012
• Death: July 2013

Officefab was a business-to-business e-commerce site that sold everything you’d expect to find in an average cubicle farm, from Scotch tape to Lenovo laptops. Launched in the summer of 2012 (if still-live social media accounts are to be relied on), Rocket hired employees for the e-store in the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

About a year after its emergence, just after Rocket completed two $100 million funding rounds for Zalora and Lazada, word got out that OfficeFab would get left behind. Employees started talking to the media, revealing that while the numbers were good, the project’s failure to attract comparatively-sized investments may have played a role in its demise. One team member told _Tech in Asia_’s Terence Lee: “The higher management decided everything so even though we’re doing well with high revenue and margin, we can do nothing anymore if the main office decided to shut it down.”

Leftover funding for OfficeFab was diverted to OfficeYes, Rocket’s office supply e-store for India. Rocket currently has no other office supply companies in its roster.

Home24

• Industry: online furniture retail
• Birth: April 2012
• Death: August 2012

Home24 launched officially in 2011 in Germany, but didn’t make its way into Asia until April 2012. Its launch on the continent was short lived, however, with the Singapore branch office shutting down just four months after it opened – marking one of Rocket Internet’s quicker flameouts.

Payleven

Pinspire

Airizu