Sascha Konietzke wants to use Contentful to create an alternative to classic CMS solutions. Market researchers from the US believe his company could soon be worth billions.
It’s such a thing with unicorn research. Attempts to find the next startup with billions in valuation, there are plenty for years. But only a few surveys are methodically in depth. Often, media and consultancy firms mainly use the sums of previous rounds of financing as a benchmark. In addition, there are hardly any reliable figures on whether the forecasts of the unicorn researchers have come to fruition in the end.
Algorithm detects unicorn candidates
All the more interesting are the results of CB Insights: the US data analysis firm has for the second time compiled a list of 50 startups that are likely to crack billions in value.
The survey is based on a multi-layered algorithm. It takes into account the current financial situation of a start-up (invested capital, reputation of the financiers, cash burn rate), the industry environment (competitive situation, number of exits) and the so-called momentum. These include, for example, the number of newspaper articles and mentions in social networks, according to CB Insights. The algorithm proved in the past to be quite accurate: From the thus determined startups from the first survey in 2015, almost half (48 percent) should have achieved unicorn status, write the analysts.
CB Insights has now published the findings of the new survey with the New York Times. Accordingly, 33 of the new unicorns come from the United States. Candidates include, for example, the Mapbox map service or Airbnb rival Sonder. Ten more unicorns are expected in emerging markets such as India, China or Brazil. Promising start-ups here are the Indian used car portal Cardekho and the Chinese HR software Beisen.
Contentful only startup from Germany
For Europe, the algorithm has identified only three startups with unicorn potential: The Swedish Insurtech Kry, the British public transport app Citymapper and Contentful, which is developing a content management system. Contentful, headquartered in Berlin, is also the only German startup with a billions worth billions, according to CB Insights.
With contentful content can be played out of a software to various platforms. For example, a text for the company blog or a push notification to users of a shopping app. The software has a modular structure through interfaces to various online services and is intended to help developers and editors work together better. Contentful is used by the streaming service Spotfiy, the co-working chain Wework and the ridesharing service Lyft.
About Contentful
The startup was founded in 2013 by former HP employee Sascha Konietzke, who quickly convinced well-known investors of his idea. So flowed since the start of more than 78 million euros in Contentful.
Shareholders include tech giant Salesforce. General Catalyst, which once co-funded Airbnb, has also invested. The Berlin and San Francisco locations currently employ just over 200 people.