Colizey, The Sport Marketplace, Raises €8 Million To Strengthen its Game
September 15, 2021
Europe
Paris, September 15th, 2021 – Colizey, the first French marketplace 100% dedicated to sports, has reached a new milestone in its growth with an €8 million fundraising. The Series A round, led by Cathay Innovation, brings together historic investors Aglaé Ventures, Cassius Family and Tony Parker, as well as new investors among which Teddy Riner. Colizey had previously raised €2.5 million in its seed round in May 2020.
In a European market where the supply of sporting goods remains highly fragmented, Colizey is reinventing the online shopping experience by connecting its partner stores (brands, stores and e-retailers) with consumers on a single platform. With 110 partners, the marketplace currently lists more than 1,000 brands in 27 different sports, offering sportsmen and women quality technical products at the best price.
The objective of this fundraising is threefold. By the end of 2022, Colizey wants to list more than one million products from 500 partners, in order to increase the variety of the offer proposed to consumers. The platform will also improve consumer support throughout the purchasing process, especially with advanced search filters, dedicated technical data sheets and the development of its community of sports experts, who will be able to advise consumers on their purchases. Finally, Colizey, which has already been active in France for two years, aims to develop its offer in Europe in 2022.
Maxime Maffini-Scialom, CEO and co-founder, Colizey, explains: “Colizey’s ambition is to offer sports brands a specialized platform respectful of their image, and to offer physical stores a new, major source of revenue in the digital era, as we have recently seen during the lockdown periods. In that respect, this fundraising will allow us to integrate a larger number of quality partners and to become the reference specialized platform for sporting goods in the European market.”
Jean-François Cochy, Investment Director at Cathay Innovation, a global venture capital platform that invests in startups positively impacting the World through technology, comments: “Sport is key to the wellbeing of people and their personal development. We were looking for a platform providing access to technical sports products and making the life of athletes & sports enthusiasts easier, and we are glad to join Colizey’s journey with the common ambition to build the leading platform for sports good distribution.”
Cyril Guenoun, co-Founder and Managing Partner of Aglaé Ventures, an investment company backed by Agache, the holding company of the Arnault family and the controlling shareholder of LVMH, adds: “Our investments in Back Market and Mano Mano have confirmed the relevance of marketplace models. We believe that Colizey is ideally placed to allow sports enthusiasts to discover new premium or technical brands and to find the equipment best suited to their practice.”
Tony Parker, four-time NBA champion and President of the largest French basketball club, explains: “I am delighted to continue to support this innovative French project in the world of sports. Colizey is the future of online sports retail.”
Teddy Riner, three-time Olympic champion and ten-time World champion of judo, concludes: “Practicing high level sport requires to pay great attention to every detail and this is particularly true for the choice of our material or equipment. I carefully choose the place where I buy my equipment and I make sure that the quality of their product offering is comprehensive, constant and innovative. Colizey perfectly meets this demand.”
Colizey
Launched in 2019, Colizey is a French online marketplace specializing in sports that connects brands and specialty stores with sports enthusiasts. The goal is simple: to offer the best technical products at the best price. How? By combining the advantages of today’s e-commerce (simple navigation, real-time prices, quick purchase) with what makes the strength of specialized stores (quality offering, purchasing advice, technical information, online help). In the end, the company wants to reinvent the whole experience of buying sports goods so that every athlete, whether a beginner or an experienced one, can find what he or she is looking for.
Cathay Innovation
Cathay Innovation is a global venture capital partnership, created in affiliation with Cathay Capital, investing in startups at the center of the digital revolution across North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Its global platform unifies technology investment across continents, investors, entrepreneurs and leading corporations to accelerate startup growth with access to new markets, invaluable industry knowledge and introductions to potential partners from the start. As a multistage fund with over $1.5 billion assets under management and offices across San Francisco, New York, Paris, Shanghai, Beijing and Singapore, Cathay Innovation partners with visionary entrepreneurs and startups positively impacting the world through technology.
Aglaé Ventures
Aglaé Ventures is a global investment firm based in Paris, New York and Los Angeles backed by Agache, the holding company of the Arnault family and the controlling shareholder of LVMH, the world leader in luxury. For nearly 30 years, Agache has backed fast-growing innovative companies at all stages of their development including Airbnb, Automattic, BackMarket, eToro, Mano Mano, Noom, Netflix, Slack and Spotify. The team has developed expertise in marketplaces, software and content platforms. Aglaé Ventures brings long-term capital, deep expertise in international deployment and unique access to a network of leading experts and entrepreneurs.