Prague-based Bookbot, an online platform for second-hand books, announced a €4 million Series A funding round led by investor Genesis Growth Equity Fund I with the participation of existing shareholder Miton. With this investment, the company will accelerate its expansion in the DACH market.
What challenge does it tackle?
The environmental cost of producing books is huge. The newspaper and book publishing industries consume 153 billion gallons of water each year, with each book consuming an average of two kilowatt hours of fossil fuels and approximately 7.5 kilograms of carbon dioxide. What’s worse, if a book reaches the landfill, its decomposition generates double the global warming emissions and toxic impacts on local water systems as it is manufactured.
Opting for used books over a new book results in less than one-fifth of the carbon emissions. By buying used, you are making a choice that is actively preventing the same books from going to landfill and avoiding the colossal environmental impact. This is where platforms such as Bookbot come into the picture.
What does the company do?
Founded by Dominik Gazdoš, Bookbot allows customers to both sell and buy books. It has sold more than 5 million books since it was founded. While many are being sent traditionally via mail,
Bookbot offers two additional ways for customers to hand in their used books: In Vienna, the company cooperates with Thalia, Europe’s leading book retailer, whose stores operate as drop-off points for books, while in both Vienna and Berlin, Bookbot offers the Book-Bote service that picks up books directly from people’s homes during self-chosen pick-up slots in cooperation with sustainable urban logistics expert DODO.
While its DACH expansion is on the cards, Bookbot expanded to Slovakia in 2022, to Austria in the summer of 2023, and to Germany in the fall of 2023.
Dominik Gazdoš, CEO at Bookbot, said: “We are convinced that to create a first-choice product for second-hand goods on the market, we have to be radically customer-centric. That is why we spend a lot of time speaking with our customers to identify practical and innovative technical solutions that make our service as comfortable and easy as possible. We are readily equipped to accelerate growth in the DACH market and beyond and will do so by systematically erasing the pains often falsely associated with second-hand by creating a top-notch customer experience. We’re happy to have the support of Genesis and Miton on this journey.”
Investors’ views
Ondřej Pernica, Investment Manager at Genesis, said: “We see re-commerce as one of the simplest and most efficient approaches to sustainable and responsible customer behaviour. We were also impressed by the strong duo of founders and their indomitable desire to improve the business they are building and to find solutions to seemingly intractable problems and their clear vision to win large European markets. Thanks to all this, we believe that Bookbot is in a great position to grow further and repeat its success in Czechia and Slovakia.”
Michal Jirák, Investment Manager at Miton, added: “With Miton, we have been following Bookbot’s development since our first investment in 2021. The dedication of the team to go to the bottom of what radical customer orientation means paired not only with its incredible growth story in the Czech Republic that has propelled it to a market share of 5% in the book market but also its strong start in the DACH market coined among others by strong strategic partnerships leaves no doubt that Bookbot will be a successful case study for Western expansion.”
