November 3, 2016 – As of today, the subscription to digital receipts of new shares in Icecat N.V. starts at NPEX, the Dutch digital stock exchange for SMEs in the Netherlands. The issue price is set at 10 euro. Icecat expects to raise 10 million euro to finance its continued fast-growth.
Icecat is a profitable and rapidly-growing online publisher and syndicator of product data for the ecommerce market. Icecat was set-up by its current CEO, Martijn Hoogeveen, in 2001. “Icecat responds to the basic need of every online consumer for great product data,” says Hoogeveen. “Icecat provides product data in 47 main languages and is virtually anywhere in the world actively used. Now in 243 different countries.” Icecat has 150 employees from 20 different nationalities.
Icecat works for about 300 global brands (sponsors), including Philips, 3M, Sony, Samsung, L’Oréal, P&G, AEG, HP, Tefal, and TomTom. For these sponsors, Icecat supports the sales channel with multimedia product data, which is available for free for ecommerce businesses through its open catalog.
At the same time, Icecat is providing data subscriptions to tens of thousands of etailers, comparison sites, purchase portals and other e-commerce companies and apps, including the largest e-commerce companies like Amazon, Media Markt and BOL. Icecat helps them with fully covering their online catalogs, search filters and comparison apps with relevant product data.
In 2015, the turnover grew by 54% to EUR 5.4 million compared to 2014. The profit increased by 45% over the same period to EUR 748,000. In the 1st half of 2016, double digit growth continued.
Why is Icecat raising capital? Icecat sees many opportunities for further growth in product data for toys, health & beauty, Do-It-Yourself and grocery items. Furthermore, Icecat will invest in its sales offices, improving its product information management system and acquire local competitors.
