Two Europeans built a South African e-commerce giant and got out before Shein and Temu crushed it
In 2011, two young men emigrated from Germany to Cape Town to launch Zando, an online fashion retailer in South Africa.
Manuel Koser and Peter Allerstorfer, together with two other co-founders, established and grew the company for Rocket Internet, a German venture-building company headquartered in Berlin.
Zando officially launched in January 2012 and shut down at the end of 2024, when its then-owner, Jumia Technologies, pulled out of South Africa, ostensibly to cut costs.
However, the real reason was that Zando and other local online clothing retailers were being crushed by two of China’s top e-commerce exports, Temu and Shein.
By then, Koser and Allerstorfer had left Zando behind, having founded Silvertree Brands, headquartered in Cape Town, to launch their own ventures.
The story of Manuel Koser and Peter Allerstorfer is a defining chapter in South African e-commerce, spanning the aggressive Rocket Internet–era of the early 2010s to the current landscape.
Their partnership began far from Cape Town. Allerstorfer, an Austrian engineer who studied at Graz University of Technology, worked for McKinsey & Company on projects across Europe.
Koser, a graduate of Maastricht University and Germany’s state distance-learning institution, FernUniversität in Hagen, was at Boston Consulting Group. They met through a mutual friend.
When the opportunity arose to build ventures in Africa for Rocket Internet, neither Allerstorfer nor Koser hesitated.
In November 2011, the pair packed their bags and moved 13,500 kilometres to begin their journey as tech entrepreneurs in South Africa’s Mother City.
When Zando launched, it was a pioneer in a market where online shopping was just taking off, with platforms like Kalahari and Takealot, which had just rebranded from Take2, jostling for position.
By the time Zando was fully operational, it boasted over 550 brands and had expanded into footwear, apparel, and beauty.
Under Allerstorfer and Koser, Zando grew rapidly and set a high bar for logistics and customer service in South Africa.
Building an empire of their own
Allerstorfer later reflected that, while they had delivered an excellent company for their backers, he realised he had put immense work into someone else’s empire.
“I stood there and saw all these things and realised I have put so much work into something that isn’t really mine. That’s when I realised it was time to build something on my own,” he told Forbes in a 2016 interview.
In April 2013, Manuel Koser resigned from Zando to co-found Silvertree Capital, now known as Silvertree Holdings, alongside Paul Cook.
“I am a start-up enthusiast and miss the excitement and hectic environment of setting up a company from scratch,” Koser said at the time. He remained a Zando shareholder.
Allerstorfer resigned later that year and joined them in November 2013. Silvertree was envisioned as a business builder and investment firm that would take a hands-on, long-term approach to startups.
Their portfolio grew to include brands like Faithful to Nature, UCOOK, Skoon, and Pet Heaven. However, the transition from corporate-backed founders to independent entrepreneurs was not without hard knocks.
Allerstorfer told Forbes that 23 July 2014 was his worst day in business. Shortly after launching Silvertree, the duo faced a catastrophic series of events that threatened to derail their entire operation.
An investor in their first major project, an online pharmacy called HealthCart, took complete control of the business and forced them out.
Simultaneously, an investor in their price comparison site disappeared, leaving them with mounting bills and 20 employees to pay.
They were suddenly facing a financial crisis that seemed insurmountable at the time. “Our whole world was crumbling in front of us,” said Allerstorfer.
PowerPoint power
They questioned whether leaving the security of Zando and the backing of Rocket Internet was the right move. However, their bet paid off when they secured new investment within a week.
The tide turned when their fundraising PowerPoint presentation secured fresh capital, allowing them to stabilise the business, scale Silvertree’s revenue tenfold, and buy back HealthCart.
“We later found out that HealthCart’s investor pulled out because they were going through financial troubles and tried to do fundraising, but failed,” Allerstorfer said.
When the investor wanted to shut down HealthCart, Silvertree bought it back — a sweet victory after the rollercoaster they had taken to get there.
As for why they remain in Cape Town, Koser said in a 2020 promotional video for the city that the reason was quite simple — Cape Town was the most beautiful city in the world.
“I’ve travelled the world, and I have a rule that to this day is unbroken,” said Koser.
“Every foreigner I meet, unprompted, within 24 hours of their first visit, starts the conversation about how to relocate to Cape Town.”
Photos of Zando over the years
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