Clones meet their maker: Samwers join Care.com in acquisition

The Samwer brothers have done it again. They’ve just become shareholders in the U.S. carer-finding site Care.com, by selling it their own version of the same concept, Betreut.

Care.com – which lets people find carers for children, elderly people, pets and others – was founded in 2006 and Betreut the following year.

We know the pattern by now: this latest win for the Samwers’ Rocket Internet – notorious for mimicking U.S. sector leaders by starting local European equivalents – follows earlier successes along similar lines, namely the sales of Alando to eBay and CityDeals to Groupon.

There are no public figures for the value of the deal, but the Samwers were majority shareholders in Betreut, with others including Mutschler Ventures and regular Rocket sidekick Holtzbrinck Ventures. According to a Betreut spokesperson, the Samwers are the only ones to become Care.com shareholders in the deal, so the others will presumably have taken their money and stepped away.

Care.com founder Sheila Lirio Marcelo says in a statement:

“We have always believed that care is a global issue. By bringing together Betreut and its extensive international operations with Care.com, our leadership position in the U.S., and our new operations in the U.K. and Canada, we are creating a dynamic portal for families around the world that provides best-in-class services to help families find the local care they need.

Betreut has operations in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Scandinavia. According to the company’s spokesperson, the name will stay the same in the three German-speaking countries, but it may change to ‘Care.com’ in the others.

In terms of scale, Care.com was obviously the bigger operation but Betreut was no slouch either, adding two million families and providers to Care.com’s five.

Betreut’s current co-CEOs, Steffen Zoller and Manuel Nothelfer, will “continue to manage the organisation”, according to the statement.

“By blending Betreut’s European expertise with Care.com’s U.S. expertise we hope to become even more adept at speaking to each market’s care challenges and providing a solution for care beyond boundaries,” Zoller said.

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