As digital entrepreneurship explodes globally, Flippa is democratizing the exit for millions of online business owners including Amazon sellers, Shopify store owners, bloggers, SaaS entrepreneurs, app developers – and more
Flippa, the #1 global online marketplace to buy and sell online businesses and digital assets, announced an $11M Series A capital raise led by Sydney-based venture capital firm OneVentures. As part of broader trends related to the pandemic’s rise in digital entrepreneurship and investors’ interest in digital investments, more online business owners are looking for a reliable, frictionless way to sell their businesses. Digital assets like mobile apps, eCommerce stores, blogs, Saas companies and other online businesses are fast becoming a sought-after asset category for investors.
Digital businesses are now the lifeblood of the small business economy, with online platforms such as Amazon, WordPress, and Shopify enabling entrepreneurs and creators to start, grow and scale their projects into sustainable companies. Over the last 10 years, the emergence and dominance of the platform economy has driven mass small business inception – Amazon alone has over six million sellers, growing at a rate of almost two thousand new sellers every day. This has spawned a new asset class from which venture-backed aggregators such as Thrasio, Heyday and Perch, and individual buyers are enabling five to eight figure exits.
“It’s not often you get an opportunity to invest in the #1 marketplace in a massively growing area, so we jumped at the opportunity,” said Nigel Dews, Operating Partner at OneVentures. “We are thrilled to partner with the Flippa team, as they democratize the exit for millions of small business owners and entrepreneurs.”
Flippa On a Strong Growth Trajectory
Flippa offers an unmatched data set of digital business transactions, and with 3 million registered users to date, has become the world’s largest community of buyers and sellers of online businesses. With overall transaction volume up organically circa 100% YoY, adding 300,000 new registered users in the last 12 months, and processing over 4,000 business valuations each month (for a combined asset value of $340M), the Company is poised for massive expansion.
“In 2009, Flippa invented the space for buying and selling digital businesses and as a bootstrapped startup we’ve achieved #1 status globally,” said Blake Hutchison, CEO of Flippa. “We’ve witnessed thousands of success stories, where business owners use Flippa to realize value in their extraordinary efforts. We are now growing into a market network to streamline transactions of all sizes and we’re excited to empower the next generation of entrepreneurs and investors.”
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What Makes Flippa Unique
Flippa’s proprietary valuation product and matching algorithm accurately values businesses and matches them directly with qualified buyers. From business owners to serial entrepreneurs, customers can sell their company directly through the platform or with the assistance of a broker or M&A advisor. The product also offers due-diligence and acquisition finance powered by Yardline Capital (a Thrasio company) and a new service called Flippa Legal which is billed as legal-as-a-service. Flippa’s platform and network is providing for the first time an end-to-end platform for the selling process.
Flippa’s Investors & Plans for Series A
OneVentures led the capital raise through its 1V Growth Fund V. Along with existing Flippa investor Andrew Walsh (ex-CEO Hitwise, acquired by Experian) and Co-Founders / Investors Mark Harbottle and Matt Mickiewicz – Co-founders of Flippa, as well as 99designs, the Company also welcomes new investors, Gabby & Hezi Leibovich (Founders of Catch.com.au), Guy King and Bevan Clarke (Founders of RetailMeNot.com), and Tim O’Neill and Tim Fouhy (Founders of Reactive Media).
Flippa plans to use the proceeds of its Series A round to double its headcount to more than 100 employees, hiring globally including in Melbourne, San Francisco, Austin, and also remotely, across all departments including engineering, product, sales, marketing and more. The funds will also be used to expand Flippa’s platform product functionality, including scaling the Company’s proprietary industry-leading business valuation tool – which is similar to a Zillow “Zestimate” for online businesses.
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