Because of company shares
Amazon shop buyer Heroes is involved in a bizarre legal dispute with VC – because he was not allowed to invest
According to a media report, the German-British shop buyer Heroes was threatened by an investor. The reason: the fund was not used in the seed round.
The Hamburg twins Alessio and Ricardo Bruni founded Heroes in the summer of 2020.
Heroes
The balance has shifted in recent months. While founders used to be looking for investor money, today it is VCs who want to get rid of their capital. This shift becomes particularly clear in a case that the tech portal Sifted first reported on: Accordingly, the e-commerce startup Heroes accuses the VC company Solid Capital of having forged documents in order to obtain company shares. In addition, the investment company based in Colombia and the Netherlands is said to have threatened the startup with "unpleasant legal disputes" and "PR battles".
Heroes was founded in June 2020 by the Hamburg twins Riccardo and Alessio Bruni. According to Sifted, the London-based company is one of the best funded shop buyer startups in Great Britain. In total, the startup has received $265 million from investors since it was founded. Heroes buys the shops of successful Amazon sellers and takes care of infrastructure and marketing. A large number of such acquisitions resulted in an online trading group with a turnover of many millions of euros.
VC does not accept cancellation
Just a few months after Heroes was founded, in May 2020, it became clear just how great the interest of investors in the concept is. At that time, the startup collected the equivalent of around 55 million euros (65 million US dollars). The funding round was led by UK-based Fuel Ventures, France's 360 Capital and US VC Upper90. Other money came from business angels like Matt Robinson and Carlos Gonzales from London fintech Gocardless.
Solid Capital, with which the startup now clashed, also wanted to invest. The portfolio companies of the international VC firm include the Colombian fintech Bold, in which Tiger Global and General Atlantic also hold shares. The investor received a term sheet, but was ultimately not taken into account. The reason: According to the founders, the round was oversubscribed.
Threats via email
According to a court document, Solid Capital transferred money to the startup's business account "unsolicited" after Heroes was canceled. Once £800,000 and then another million pounds – the equivalent of around two million euros. The startup then transferred the money back, they say. Nevertheless, Solid Capital is said to have continued to insist on company shares in return for Heroes.
In response, the investment firm threatened the startup in emails with "uncomfortable, lengthy and costly litigation" and "public PR battles," Sifted quoted from a document from the London Commercial Court. Further allegations against the VC are that the investor is said to have presented the startup with "grossly fake" versions of an alleged agreement. The investor denies the allegations to the Gründerszene. "That would be ridiculous and unprofessional," said Robert Wilhelm, Founder and Managing Partner at Solid Ventures. Heroes itself has not yet answered a corresponding request. According to Sifted, however, the legal dispute has been settled anyway. With what result, the parties are silent. A Heroes spokeswoman told the tech portal that they were very satisfied with the outcome.
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