Nothacker co-founded Sennder in 2015 and also initiated the joint venture with Poste Italiane.
(Photo: Bloomberg/Getty Images)
Berlin The Italian Post is significantly expanding its stake in the Berlin logistics start-up Sennder. As part of the realignment of the Italian joint venture, Poste Italiane’s stake in Sennder will increase to ten percent, the Berlin start-up announced on Wednesday. “So far, the post has held around two percent,” said Sennder co-founder and boss David Nothacker the Handelsblatt.
Nothacker did not want to comment on the value of the stake. In the last round of financing in June 2021, Sennder was valued at around one billion dollars and is therefore referred to as a so-called unicorn.
The joint venture with the Italian Post has existed since 2019. Since then, Sennder has handled most of the truck transports for Poste Italiane. Both companies have now prematurely extended their collaboration for a further ten years.
Sennder: Italy joint venture is already profitable
So far, the joint venture has generated around 230 million euros a year and thus more than a third of the annual sales of a good 600 million euros targeted by Sennder for 2023.
In contrast to the start-up itself, the joint venture was already profitable with an operating profit (Ebitda) of 4.5 million euros last year. Of course, that helps Sennder on the way into the black, said Nothacker, who founded the digital forwarding company in 2015 together with Julius Köhler and Nicolaus Schefenacker. Customers include brewery giant AB Inbev, as well as Coca-Cola and Danone.
As part of the deal, the ownership structure of the joint venture, which is controlled by Nothacker’s brother Gregor, will also change. Sennder takes over the majority for the first time with 75 percent. The rest is up to Poste Italiane, which sends letters and parcels in Italy, but also offers insurance and financial services. The company, which is majority state-owned, employs 120,000 people and has 35 million customers.
The Italian joint venture is already profitable.
(Photo: Sender)
Size is crucial in the logistics business, for example in order to use volume advantages, exploit technological advantages and realize connecting journeys. Sennder currently provides and networks more than 40,000 trucks across Europe.
Sennder’s existing investors include Volkswagen subsidiary Scania, as well as venture capital investors Lakestar, Accel, Baillie Gifford and Flixbus investor HV Capital. HV partner Felix Klühr welcomed the new deal: “The expansion of the partnership gives Sennder even more entrepreneurial flexibility to develop growth prospects in Italy and serves as a guideline for further expansion.”
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Sennder’s goal now is to enter into partnerships with even more companies. According to Nothacker, companies should run their logistics business entirely through the start-up. “This helps them to be able to handle transports more cheaply and efficiently,” says Nothacker.
For Sennder it would also be an opportunity to better absorb the fluctuations in the logistics business. So far, the company has mainly felt the economic weakness on the so-called spot market. “Less additional capacity is required,” said Nothacker.
In December, the Handelsblatt reported that Sennder was undertaking a new round of financing and had already received commitments from existing investors of over EUR 60 million at the first attempt. Nothacker did not want to say what the situation was.
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