Venturepreneurs'

Our fellow Venturepreneur Markus Wagner has great news to share: The transaction of the world’s leading online people search service!

His incubator i5invest and Austrian venture capital firm Gamma Capital Partners successfully sold one of their portfolio companies: The French PagesJaunes Group has acquired a 100% stake in 123people. "We've started 123people just 30 months ago beginning from scratch. 123people is a great success story for everybody involved. The founding team, venture partners, business partners, the new shareholder and last but not least the internet users profit by the leading realtime internet people search. The success of 123people proofs once again, how effective the i5invest setup works", i5invest partners Markus Wagner and Stefan Kalteis state.
 
123people was founded two years ago, and with currently 40 Million Unique Visitors per month, ranks as the world’s leading provider of name-related vertical search on the Web. "PagesJaunes Groupe, as the new owner of the company, brings in substantial online-expertise for 123people. Synergies between a renowned and leading directory service and a company, which is considered optimizing people search on the Internet, are obvious.“, says Markus Wagner, founder and CEO of i5invest.

„Once again a leading and global company has been established with Austrian Venture Capital. The acquisition by PagesJaunes Groupe has positive effects for all stakeholders involved: the founders are being rewarded for their initial phase of building the company, jobs in Austria are being secured and widened and Investors happily profit from a 200% return per year“, says Klaus Matzka, who lead the transaction on behalf of GCP gamma capital partners, about the successful trade-sale of the company.123people was founded with strong support of i5invest and has been financially backed by Gamma Capital Partners.

„PagesJaunes Groupe’s involvment truly enriches Austria as an IT and Web location. I5invest’s vast international network of individuals and companies has yet again proven it’s viability and success.“
 
Within two years to global player: 123people
After its relaunch in 2008, 123people quickly became a synonym for people search on the web and global brand. Under the leadership of CEO Russell E. Perry and an experienced management team headed by Iris Pittl and Martin Stemeseder 123people currently reaches 40 Million people (unique visitors) with eleven localized country sites (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Sweden, USA and Canada). At every request more than 200 data sources are being pulled into the service, whereas a majority of them is location-specific, and is thereafter being displayed in a structured way on the Web. Since its incorporation in 2008, 123people continuously grows both revenues and profits.

i5invest GmbH operates offices in New York, Vienna and Salzburg and is a „Startup factory“ for Web and Mobile companies. With a team of internationally trained and experienced entrepreneurs and a vas network in New York, Silicon Valley and Europe, i5invest acts as Incubator for tomorrows’ Online and Mobile businesses. I5invest’s current portfolio on companies consists of Online travel guide tripwolf, Coupon platform DealHamster, social yellow pages startup Tupalo and mobile App company Adaffix. Furthermore the company is shareholder in Online gaming world Papermint and supports both the leading gaming provider Xendex and Augmented Reality startup Mobilizy.

About GCP gamma capital partners AG
GCP gamma capital partners AG is a leading Venture Capital (VC) investor with offices in Vienna, Munich and Bratislava. GCP provides equity und mezzanine capital to technology-driven startups and family-led growth companies. Investors are leading austrian and international financial institutions, private investors and renowned foundations. GCP’s current portfolio is built of more then a dozen dynamic technology growth companies, for example the RFID holding Indentec, the game commerce platform fatfoogoo, the med-tech company Pantec Biosolutions, the wastewater treatment company Organica, the agro-generics holding GAT Microencapsulation or the industrial biotechnology business Eucodis.


Thank you for sharing, Markus!