// STARTUP COMPARISON
Rappi (2022 crisis) vs Trovit
Rappi (2022 crisis) failed in 2022 due to Unit Economics. Trovit failed in 2014 due to Acquisition Gone Wrong. Different causes, different sectors, different eras — but the same simulation outcome.
| METRIC | 🔥 Rappi (2022 crisis) | 🔥 Trovit |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | Marketplace | Marketplace |
| Country | Colombia | Spain |
| Founded | 2015 | 2006 |
| Died | 2022 | 2014 |
| Raised | $2B | Bootstrapped then acquired |
| Peak | $5.25B valuation | €50M revenue |
| Primary Cause | Unit Economics | Acquisition Gone Wrong |
// WHY EACH FAILED
🔥 Rappi (2022 crisis)
Unit Economics
Rappi, Colombia's first unicorn and Latin America's most funded startup, raised $2B and reached a $5.25B valuation. The 2022 global tech downturn exposed chronic unit economics problems — delivery subsidies, low basket sizes, and high customer acquisition costs made the path to profitability unclear. Rappi laid off approximately 6% of its workforce in 2022 and cut unprofitable verticals.
// LESSON
Super-app strategies require the core vertical to be profitable before adding adjacencies. Each new vertical is a bet funded by the core. If the core bleeds, every adjacency accelerates the bleeding.
Super-app strategies require the core vertical to be profitable before adding adjacencies. Each new vertical is a bet funded by the core. If the core bleeds, every adjacency accelerates the bleeding.
🔥 Trovit
Acquisition Gone Wrong
Trovit was a classifieds search aggregator founded in Barcelona with strong positions in Spanish, Italian, and Brazilian markets. It was acquired by Japan's Next Co. in 2014 for approximately €80M. Under Japanese corporate ownership, product focus deteriorated, key engineers left, and the platform was gradually wound down and replaced by Next's own products.
// LESSON
Acquisition price does not guarantee product continuity. A culturally misaligned buyer destroys more value than they paid — especially when the value was a product culture that cannot be transplanted.
Acquisition price does not guarantee product continuity. A culturally misaligned buyer destroys more value than they paid — especially when the value was a product culture that cannot be transplanted.
// EXPLORE FURTHER