Q3 Marketplaces Update

Online marketplace startups, like most of the industry, have had a tricky Q3. So what's been going on in the marketplaces venture space in the last three months?

📉 $13.6B in VC funding was raised by marketplaces, down by over a third (-35%) compared to Q2, and 2 thirds year on year (-67%). This is, however, marginally less than the slump in other key sectors such Fintech, Transportation & Enterprise Software.

🦄 10 new unicorns were minted in the last quarter, down from a peak of 47 in Q1 2021. The marketplace unicorn momentum has now firmly swung towards B2B.

🏦 Fintech Marketplaces were the highest funded marketplace sub-sector of Q3 with $3.8B in VC funding raised.

Want more insights? Access the full report and learn more about marketplace funding, enterprise value shocks, leading names in the sector and more in our Q3 Marketplaces Report. 

In other news: 

📜 Gig worker business models lose value with potential new regulation in the US. Companies such as Uber and Lyft lost 10% market value after the US government announced plans to treat platform workers more as workers than contractors. - BBC

💲 Magic Eden shifts to a no-fee model. The crypto NFT trading platform has decided to adopt the optional royalty model as it fights for new users.  - CoinDesk

🧱 Industrial Marketplaces Eye Trillion-Dollar Opportunity. B2B marketplaces are catching more attention as supply chains suffer and interest increase, gaining efficiency has become more critical than ever. - PYMTNS

🇮🇳 Byju, the Indian education marketplace platform, has raised $250M in VC funding from the Qatar Investment Authority. The deal comes as the company has cut many jobs and delays its IPO.

🇮🇩 FinAccel, the Indonesian e-commerce platform focusing on BNPL, has reached unicorn status after receiving a $140M Series D. The round comes after the company dropped its SPAC earlier in the year as public markets took a turn for the worse. 

🇳🇱 Crisp, the Dutch supermarket marketplace, has raised a $75M Series C round for an expansion. The company grew its product portfolio in 36% and doubled its customer base in the last year. 

Other promising marketplace deals:

🇸🇦 Zid, a e-commerce creating platform based in Saudi Arabia, has raised a $50M Series B round to expand into new markets in the country. 

🇺🇸 ValeraHealth, a NY-based platform connecting key players in mental health segment, has filled to raised $44M with the SEC.

🇺🇸 FOLX Health, a Boston-based Telehealth marketplace focused on the LGTBQIA+ community, has raised a $30M Series B to continue its expansion process.

Explore 70+ funding rounds of the last week.

Notable exits:

🇮🇳 ZoomCar, the Indian car sharing marketplace, is set to go public via SPAC in a $456M transaction.

🇺🇸 Goat Group, a US-based fashion group, has acquired Grailed, a NY-based peer-to-peer fashion marketplace. 

Explore 7 exits of the last week.

Tip of the week

💸 Marketplaces H1 2022

For the first half of 2022, marketplaces managed to stay afloat in spite of a slowing market. Funding, combined enterprise value, and unicorn creation slowed down, but numbers remained above pre-pandemic records. 

Read the followup to our Q3 report in an in-depth report of everything you need to know on how Marketplaces fared in the first half of 2022.

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📈 Top 100 Marketplaces to Watch

🔋Energy marketplaces keeping the lights on

🗓 Marketplaces H1 2022

Christopher V. Dobereiner

Innovation Analyst
Dealroom

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