What the business is
A B2B e-commerce storefront selling business and industrial products direct from manufacturers across 13 markets.
The bet
Businesses buying tools, workbenches and catering equipment would order direct from manufacturers online instead of via faxed catalogues and middlemen.
How it started
CEO Arasch Jalali got the idea in his first job after university at a German B2B firm: in 2010, sellers still displayed products in printed catalogues and price estimates and stock checks ran over fax.
What happened
Founded in Bremen with CTO Anna Hoffmann, Profishop grew 100–120% a year, stayed profitable, and raised only a small seed from Takkt and Howzat before Tiger Global put in $35 million as sole investor in March 2022 to fund expansion in Europe and a US push.
What has to be true
A decade of profitable 100–120% annual growth proved the model before a single institutional cheque.
Going direct to manufacturers removed middlemen cost from a supply chain that ran on fax machines.
Tiger Global was pushing further into Europe and earlier stages, and Profishop's self-funded scale fit.
The US market entry needed capital, the first use of outside money in the company's history.
What can be applied
A profitable decade of bootstrapping is real traction: when B2B e-commerce investors finally came calling, the company negotiated from strength, not need.
Aftermath
As of the March 2022 announcement the round was earmarked for expanding the business and platform in Europe and beyond, on top of a US launch earlier that year.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE