Top 10 Marketplace VC Investors

Marketplace platforms have historically been known to be among the most popular and lucrative industries. There are dozens of companies that have been successful because of the massive web presence and large user base, but there are also many examples of failed ventures trying to break into this space. Despite the perceived difficulty in creating a successful marketplace company, there are some venture capital investors who specialize in these types of companies and have invested in many successful projects in the fields of commerce and online retail.

Top 10 Marketplace Venture Capital Firms

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1. Adevinta Ventures

We aim to take minority stakes in European consumer facing startups that can shape the future of marketplaces. Our primary investment areas are proptech, fintech, future of work, education and mobility among others. We look for aspiring category leaders with tangible traction, a potential to scale beyond their domestic market, and which we can support with more than financial resources. Our sweet spot is Series A and B.

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Website: www.adevinta.com

Founded: 2018

Total fund size: €100M.

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2. FJ Labs

FJ Labs is a stage-agnostic investment firm that focuses on marketplaces and consumer facing startups. Their investments are seed and series A. The investment range of the company is $50,000 to $5,000,000. It invests in Alibaba Group, beepi, BrightRoll, Betterment, ADORE ME, and earnest.

FJ Labs is a U.S.-based company that was founded in 2015by Fabrice Grinda.

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Website: www.fjlabs.com

Founded: 2015

Total fund size: $5.5M

Stage: Seed, Series A, Series B, Series C, Growth

Sector: Consumer Goods, Consumer Services, E-Commerce, Marketplaces, Internet, Software, Fintech, SaaS

Investment Geography: Agnostic (Global)

FJ Labs's most notable exits include Uber, FanDuel, and Semantix.

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3. Jackson Square Ventures

Jackson Square Ventures is an early stage venture capital firm that invests in software businesses. At JSV, all partners are former founders or tech executives, and we use our operational experience to support entrepreneurs in building lasting businesses. As principal investors in billion dollar companies like Docusign and Upwork; and high growth startups like Strava, Seismic, and OfferUp, we know that success comes from deeply-held, long-term conviction, and we invest for the long haul.

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Website: www.jsv.com

Founded: 2011

Total fund size: $437M

Stage: Seed, Series A

Sector: Applications, Marketplaces, Enterprise, Fintech, Software, SaaS, E-Commerce, Analytics

Ticket Size: $ 1M - $ 10M

Investment Geography: United States, Canada

Jackson Square Ventures's most notable exits include Upwork, DocuSign, and Sideqik.

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4. Market One Capital

Market One Capital is an early-stage VC firm investing into marketplaces and digital platforms across Europe.

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Website: www.moc.vc

Founded: 2017

Total fund size: €45M

Market One Capital's most notable exits include Kitch, CallPage, and Nautal.

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5. Piton Capital

Piton Capital is a venture capital and growth equity firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Piton focuses exclusively on network effects businesses (marketplaces, exchanges and platforms) as this provide one of the few moats or forms of defensibility to achieve dominance. There are several forms of great network effects businesses thataren’t marketplaces that include data network effects (including machine learning and AI), businesses that rely on user generated content, as well as SaaS businesses with the potential to layer network effects around it. The firm is a stage and style-agnostic and seeks to invest from seed to late stage (€200k to €15m).

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Website: www.pitoncap.com

Founded: 2010

Stage: Series A, Series B

Sector: Agnostic

Piton Capital's most notable exits include FanDuel, Redbubble, and Quandoo.

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6. Sova VC

Sova VC is an international investor focused on backing and building ambitious and disruptive technology companies. Its initial fund, launched in January 2021, targets early-stage (Late Seed and Series A) companies, with a particular focus on B2B and B2B2C marketplaces and software platforms. Its Liquidity Fund, launched in January 2022, provides flexible solutions to the direct secondary market allowing early-stage shareholders and investors in high growth technology companies to realise early returns.

Sova VC Marketplace Fund Early stage We typically invest at Late Seed and Series A stages, and our initial investment will commonly be in the range of €1.5-2 million, growing to as much as €4 million in a single portfolio company.

Sova VC Liquidity Fund Late stage We typically invest between £1-7 million to acquire equity in growth stage companies where early shareholders - such as founders , CEOs, managers, business angels, employees and other early-stage investors - wish to obtain partial or full pre-exit liquidity.

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Website: www.sova.vc

Founded: 2020

Total fund size: $50K

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7. Samaipata

Samaipata is an early-stage pan-European VC. The fund was created by two entrepreneurs, José del Barrio, co-founder of the leading food-delivery platform in Spain, sold to Rocket Internet for $100 million and Eduardo Díez-Hochleitner, senior executive, Business Angel and current Chairman at MásMóvil, sold to KKR for €5bn in 2020.

Samaipatainvests in digital platforms with network effects at Seed stage across Europe. They back mission-driven entrepreneurs who are striving to build the next European unicorn! If you're a early stage European platform founder, share your pack here https://samaipata.typeform.com/to/k43fN6

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Website: www.samaipata.vc

Founded: 2016

Stage: Pre-Seed, Seed

Ticket Size: $ 750K - $ 2.50M

Investment Geography: Europe

Samaipata's most notable exits include CornerJob, Jinn, and Deporvillage.

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8. White Star Capital

White Star Capital is a global venture capital fund and multi-stage technology investment platform investing in North America, Europe and Asia. It backs exceptional entrepreneurs globally, leveraging their extensive experience and networks to help them scale their businesses internationally. Operating out of New York, London, Montreal, Toronto, Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong, its presence, perspective and people enable it to partner closely with Founders to help them scale internationally from Series A onwards.

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Website: www.whitestarcapital.com

Founded: 2007

Total fund size: $690.4M

Stage: Series A, Series B

Sector: Financial Services

White Star Capital's most notable exits include Dollar Shave Club, Activate, and Digg.

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9. Tekton Ventures

TEKTON VENTURES is an international seed investment firm that partners at inception with forward looking company builders in leading technology hubs worldwide. The firm’s principals have over three decades of experience as early stage investors. Leveraging an extensive global network of entrepreneurs and investors, Tekton makes early stage investments in category defining companies in several strategic geographies around the world.

Passionate entrepreneurs exist in many parts of the world. Tekton Ventures focuses its investments in two different places: Silicon Valley and selected technology centers ( London and Israel); and the fast growing mobile/digitally connected markets in Asia (China, Korea and India).

Our approach to global investing rests on partnerships with local venture ecosystems: we have built long standing relationships with some of the best local seed and venture investors in our geographies of focus.

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Website: www.tektonventures.com

Founded: 2009

Tekton Ventures's most notable exits include Gem, Legalpad, and Coupang.

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10. Global Founders Capital

GFC is a globally oriented, stage agnostic venture capital firm that empowers gifted entrepreneurs. The firm seeks to invest in companies that operate within the internet, retail, financial software, media, communication, and information technology sectors. It was founded by Oliver Samwer in 2013 and is based in Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

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Website: www.globalfounderscapital.com

Founded: 2013

Total fund size: $1.6B