100 million euros for Chrono24

The Karlsruhe-based start-up has raised a lot of money in its latest financing round, making it the first "watch unicorn" according to CEO Stracke.

Chrono24 has raised a whopping 100 million euros in its current Series C financing round. The round was led by US venture capitalist General Atlantic, which provided 50 percent of the financing round. The VC arm of the French group LVMH, Aglaé Ventures, is also a new participant. The existing investors Insight Partners and Sprints Capital are also participating. "After the latest financing round, we are certainly the world's first "watch unicorn" with a valuation of over one billion dollars," CEO Tim Stracke told Handelsblatt .

Founded in 2003, the platform for luxury watches employs around 400 people and is based in Karlsruhe, Berlin, New York and Hong Kong. According to Stracke, the start-up was able to increase its turnover by 50 percent in 2020. A few weeks ago, Reuters reported that there were plans for Chrono24 to go public, and CEO Stracke is not ruling out this step in light of the new financing round.

The Karlsruhe-based company has now raised a total of EUR 200 million with the current round; the last round took place in 2019 and amounted to EUR 43 million.