Grover
- 🦄Became a unicornApr 2022
- 📈Peak valuation$1 Billion ’22
- 💔Became a UnitardApr 2025
- 💸Last valuation~$60M
Total raised averaged per day over approximately 9.8 years from founding to bankruptcy or shutdown. This is not measured cash burn. Methodology
The rise & fall
5 moments · 2015–2025The key moments.
How it happened
Grover is a Berlin company that Michael Cassau founded in 2015 to rent out consumer electronics — phones, laptops, consoles — on monthly subscriptions, financing the gadgets with debt. A $330M Series C in April 2022, $110M of equity led by Energy Impact Partners plus a $220M debt facility, pushed its valuation past $1B, though the company stated only 'more than $1 billion,' without a precise post-money.
When interest rates jumped, the debt-funded inventory model stopped working. Grover filed for preventive restructuring under Germany's StaRUG law, and in April 2025 the Charlottenburg district court confirmed a plan: €30M of fresh equity took half the company, creditors took the other half, and existing shareholders were crammed down to a synthetic interest in future upside, leaving an implied equity value around €60M.
Glassdoor ratings declined over the same period as the company cut back ahead of the restructuring.
Employee accounts paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗. See our methodology.
Source: Bloomberg (Apr 7, 2022): 'Consumer Tech Subscription Startup Grover Valued at $1 Billion' on a $330M Series C ($110M equity led by Energy Impact Partners; $220M debt facility via Fasanara); the >$1B is a company-stated equity figure, with no exact post-money disclosed. Hengeler Mueller (deal counsel): Amtsgericht Charlottenburg confirmed the StaRUG plan on Apr 25, 2025 (creditor vote Apr 16) — €30M of fresh equity for 50%, financial creditors took the other 50% via debt-for-equity, and existing shareholders were crammed down, implying ~€60M (~$65M) equity value. Founded 2015 by Michael Cassau.
Founder
Current roles as self-reported on LinkedIn, retrieved 2026-10-13. See our methodology.
Disclosed investors (22)
Historical funding participation; lists may be incomplete and do not establish current ownership or investor losses.
* Lead in a funding round · Crunchbase ↗ · 2026-10-13 · Methodology · Leaderboard
