Marketplace investors
Marketplace investors back businesses that connect two sides, buyers and sellers, riders and drivers, hosts and guests, and take a share of what passes between them. The model has its own metrics and its own failure modes, and the firms that specialise in it know both.
The firms on this list name marketplaces or platforms as a focus on their own website. Each cites its own site as the source for what is written here.
Xploration Capital is an investment firm that backs ambitious founders building next-generation platforms, digital ecosystems, and SaaS companies worldwide. The firm emphasizes deep…
212 invests in growth-stage tech companies across Turkey, CEE, and MENA. Currently, our fund manages €75 million of committed capital, and 25 investments. Our strategy is to invest in…
Founded in 2020 by former Rocket Internet executives Alexander Kudlich and Ludwig Ensthaler, alongside Mesosphere founder Florian Leibert, 468 Capital bridges the European and US tech…
4DX Ventures is a technology-focused investment firm active across Africa. The firm highlights more than 10 years of track record, over 50 portfolio companies, and operations in more…
Access Bridge Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund investing in people and entrepreneurs, providing value add through regional networks, operational experience, strong…
An angel network that supports startups through individual investments, due diligence, mentoring, business development, and growth facilitation.
Founded in 2017 by Andrew Sugrue and Jamie Reynolds, Avenir Growth Capital is a private investment firm focused on scaling technology-enabled businesses. The firm operates with the…
Since 2012, BECO Capital has invested in founders building technology companies across the Gulf and the broader Middle East, managing over $820 million across five funds from pre-seed…
Burda Principal Investments (BPI) is a division of Hubert Burda Media that provides long-term growth equity to fast-growing digital technology and media companies. It acts as the…
BY Venture Partners is a venture capital firm that backs early-stage founders and supports startups in scaling globally. Its partners are all former founders, collectively having…
Courtside Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on sports, lifestyle, and gaming. The firm partners with early-stage founders who are challenging traditional…
An early-stage venture capital fund formed by ex-founders and operators focused on underdigitized industries.
Anchored by the Dubai International Financial Centre and Dubai Future Foundation to strengthen venture capital investing in Dubai.
Endeavor Catalyst Fund is the rules-based, co-investment fund of Endeavor, set up to invest exclusively in Endeavor Entrepreneur-led companies. The fund is designed to sustain…
EQ2 Ventures was built on the foundations of Equitrust, a corporate VC arm launched in 2015 by Choueiri Group, and operates as an evergreen venture holding.
Evolution VC Partners invest and partner with disruptive companies with a strong team, product, and market opportunity. They help entrepreneurs build great companies and consider…
FJ Labs is an investment firm focused on marketplace and network-effect businesses. It highlights investments in companies such as Alibaba, Coupang, Flexport, Delivery Hero, Shipbob…
GII is a Shariah-compliant global alternative investment company founded in 2014 with over $4.5 billion of assets under management, investing across private equity, venture capital…
gumi Cryptos Capital (gCC) is a boutique early-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley. Founded in 2018, it supports builders in the industry by leveraging entrepreneurial…
A venture capital firm with over 12 years of investing in technology companies across various sectors.
Nordstar partners with transformational companies seeking strategic and operational expertise, advice, and capital
Partech harnesses broad expertise from a collective of experts to deliver the best support for founders across the globe.
Point Nine Capital is a Berlin-based venture capital firm focused exclusively on early-stage Internet investments in areas like Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), online marketplaces, and…
QED Investors is an investment firm that supports high-growth companies and businesses. The firm typically provides a combination of both capital and capability. But common to all the…
What marketplace investors look for
Liquidity.
Whether a buyer who arrives finds a seller, and a seller finds a buyer, within a time and a distance that keeps both coming back. It is the first thing a marketplace investor checks and the reason marketplaces launch city by city.
A take rate the market will bear.
The share the marketplace keeps, and whether it is sustainable once the two sides know each other. Investors ask what stops them transacting off the platform.
Repeat on both sides.
Retention of buyers and of sellers, measured separately. A marketplace that must reacquire its supply every month is an advertising business with extra steps.
Fragmentation.
Markets with many small buyers and many small sellers are where marketplaces thrive. A market with a few dominant players on either side does not need one.
A wedge that builds the network.
How the company gets the first side to show up before the other exists. Investors want to see the sequencing and evidence that it worked in the first market.
Raising in marketplaces
Marketplace investors read gross merchandise value, take rate, net revenue, and retention by side and by cohort. A founder who arrives with those numbers, and with liquidity measured market by market, has already answered the first hour of questions.
Have ready: gross merchandise value and its growth, take rate and net revenue, buyer and seller retention by cohort, liquidity metrics such as time to match or fill rate, acquisition cost for each side, and the share of transactions that stay on the platform.
Marketplaces often need to spend to build supply before demand arrives, and investors accept that when the plan for reaching liquidity in each market is specific and the first market has proven it.
Questions
What is liquidity in a marketplace?
The likelihood that a transaction can happen: a buyer finds what they want, a seller finds a buyer, quickly enough that both return. It is measured per market, because a marketplace can have it in one city and lack it in the next.
What is a good take rate?
It depends on the value the marketplace adds and the margins of the sellers. Investors look at whether the rate is stable, and whether sellers stay at that rate once they have found their customers.
How do marketplaces prevent disintermediation?
By doing things the two sides value beyond the introduction: payments, trust, insurance, scheduling, dispute resolution. Investors ask which of those the company provides and how much of the transaction it therefore controls.
Are B2B marketplaces different?
The transaction sizes are larger, the sales cycle is longer and the buyers are more concentrated. Many investors specialise in one or the other, and the firms on this list state which on their sites.
How do investors think about managed marketplaces?
As marketplaces that take on more of the work, and more of the cost, to guarantee quality. The margin is lower and the control is higher. Investors price the trade-off and want to see that the extra cost buys retention.
Marketplace investors by country
Marketplace investors by city
Marketplace investors by stage