Talk by Mergim Cahani, Gjirafa (Kosovo & Albania), at Stanford Engineering on March 12 2018, in our session: 'Kosovo|Albania & Germany : eCommerce Portals & InterCity Transportation Startups'. Website: http://www.StanfordEuropreneurs.org YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/StanfordEuropreneurs Twitter: @Europreneurs

1. Mërgim Cahani
Founder & CEO
March 12th, 2018
European Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Stanford University

2. About the region and Albanian speaking community
12M
4.5M
World wide
active
internet users
7M
Kosovo, Albania,
Macedonia,
Montenegro
Albanian speaking people
North America
Kosovo
Albania
Macedonia
Montenegro
Albanian speaking Diaspora

3. About Gjirafa (1/2)
VISION
Build Internet Economy in Balkans
Gjirafa is the fastest growing
Internet Services company
in Balkans
984.56% CAGR in the last two years
• Albanian language search engine
• A content and video stream platform
• E-commerce company

4. About Gjirafa (2/2)
TechCrunch
“tackling the region’s search engine chicken
and egg problem: much of the information that
users typically search for doesn’t yet exist online”
The Economist
“It has prospered by filling niches deemed
too small to bother with by the world’s
internet giants”

5. Global landscape: similar regional successful companies
(revenue >$3.7B)(revenue >$130M) (revenue >$1.25B) (revenue >$5.78B)
Seznam in Czech Republic Yandex in Russia Naver in South Korea Yahoo! Japan

6. EUROPE
Untapped region.
One of the few places/markets that has not
been unlocked yet, and has the greatest
opportunity for exponential growth
Market is bigger than it seems
Gjirafa has validated the market, perfectly
positioned with top brand reputation, with
significant margins and impressive
hockey-stick revenue growth
Region ignored by tech giants
BALKAN
PENINSULA
Why Balkans - emerging market

7. Gjirafa’s roots
NYU
Masters
Project
Self
investment
50,000 $
Launched
and failed
Feb, 2013
StartupYard
re-launched with
a team October 2014
ROCKAWAY
Investment
December 2015
Region underserved in just
about all consumer Internet services
Gjirafa Team can execute up to 10x the
cost efficiency as Google, YouTube,
Netflix, Amazon, Yelp, for an
equivalent-market-need effectiveness
Not attractive enough for global players
• Vertical growth the only option that makes sense for global
companies or investment
• Challenging and expensive to compete across a range of services

8. Gjirafa Products
E-commerce Video streaming Online marketing Offline to online
Search Maps, Street View,
Hotel Booking
Video Streaminge-commerce shop
Electronics e-commerce shop
Electronics e-commerce shop
Online marketing
CLASSIFIED

9. Gjirafa Lab
• STARTUP FACTORY
• ACCELERATOR
• SEED FUND
18 MENTORS
CONFIRMED
international and local experts
Mentors from, Google, Harvard, Lyft,
Columbia University, Accenture, ASU, etc
Trekandi is an online platform that helps users find
the best financial offer for their needs.
GJIRAFA OWNS 50% EQUITY.

10. Select Investors
Rockaway Capital
Leading VC in CEE with
global presence
Credo Ventures Management
Leading VC in CEE with
global presence
ESTHER DYSON
Executive Founder, Way to Wellville;
Board member at Yandex
Investor, Founder EDventure
PHILIP STAEHELIN
Serial Entrepreneur former MD
at Roland and Berger, T-Mobile,
Accenture, A.T. Kearny
SEMYON DUKACH
Former MD Tech Stars Boston
BLERON BARALIU
Serial Entrepreneur and
top 30 under 30 wall street trader
EVEN BERNTSEN
Former MD at JP Morgan
and State Street
ONDREJ BARTOS
Managing Partner
at Credo Ventures

11. Growth in numbers
https://techcrunch.com/2013/08/24/how-fast-should-you-be-growing/
REVENUE RANGE
0%
$0-$25M $25M-$50M $50M-$75M $75M-$150M $150M-$500M
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
140%
160%
180%
25th Percentile
Median
75th Percentile
984.56% CAGR Gjirafa last 2 years
(1)
(1)
How fast should
companies be
growing, as per
TechCrunch
analysis

12. Team Photos (1/4)

13. Team Photos (2/4)

14. Team Photos (3/4)

15. Team Photos (4/4)

16. Thank you
facebook.com/cahani
linkedin.com/in/cahani
@MergimCahani
mergim@gjirafa.com
Mërgim Cahani
Founder & CEO