Goodbye 2023 + a round of celebrations for our portfolio founders

Hot off the presses, this is the 49th edition of The Marketplace Snippet curated by Irene, Mathias and Jeroen on behalf of the Speedinvest Marketplaces & Consumer team 🔥

In this edition:

Our #MPC2023 video recap
Marketplace building insights from the founders of Indeed and Airbnb
The latest on AI (and marketplaces)
Tons of great news from our portfolio companies and their founders

More on these topics and additional thought-provoking discussions below.

If you’ve missed past newsletters or simply can’t get enough, catch up on recent editions here.

Marketplace Conference 2023: A recap and more to come!

Still thinking about our Marketplace Conference? Get ready to relive the best moments of our great last edition in September and dive here into the ultimate highlights reel!

And if you can’t get enough of our content, take a look to one of our amazing panels from September on The State of Fundraising for Marketplace Companies, featuring on stage Courtney Chow from Battery Ventures, Jasper Masemann from Cherry Ventures and Andrew Blachman from Marketplace Capital, as well as our own Mathias Ockenfels.

And, last but not least, stay tuned for more news to come: we have great events in the making for 2024! 🚀

Insights From Marketplace Operators

For this month’s insights on the go 🎧:

Paul Forster, founder of Indeed and now successful Angel investors, takes part to #20Angel, talking about how he built a $7bn marketplace business with only one (!) round of funding, how he passed on a $2.5bn company and what he thinks it takes to be a great Angel.
Lenny interviews Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO of Airbnb, discussing how they restructured the role of product management, the importance of details, how to rethink traditional Growth strategies and more.

What does it really take to build a super app?

Sangeet Paul Choudary, Author of “Platform Revolution” and expert on platforms and network effects, reconstructs WeChat’s growth path and how they built their prime user relationship, decoupling what it takes to build a super app and who can really call themselves that.

How to survive a crisis?

Barthélémy Kiss, founder & CEO of gamer app Powder, shares his insights on how he survived the departure of his 3 co-founders while also dealing with a company crisis, demonstrating true resilience and showing there is always a way up in uncertain times.

Insights From Marketplace Investors

Seed to Series A: The big reset

Charles Hudson, Managing Partner at Precursor Ventures, discusses his findings about the fundamental shift in the Series A venture landscape and the main implications he sees for both founders and investors.

From inception to bankruptcy: A Thrasio recap

After raising $3.4 billion in funding, Amazon Aggregator Thrasio recently made the news filing for insolvency. Rohit Bhadange, Founder & CEO of Zamp, retraces the company’s history from inception, through fame, to failure.

How to build the perfect Board?

Brian Halligan, Co-Founder of Propeller Ventures and HubSpot, gathers insights from his experience as entrepreneur and investor on what (and who) truly adds value in a Board of Directors and how you should address this topic while scaling your company.

AI today: Where are we?

A lot happened in AI in 2023! If you need a recap, take a look at Coatue’s latest report, The AI Revolution, including a recap of this year’s AI investment boom, its impact on the tech ecosystem and what is yet to come.

News From Our Portfolio

Some end of year celebrations✨:

Raus raised an additional €8.5M to accelerate expanding their nature immersion platform across Europe. With already 50+ cabins, the Berlin-based startup offers people living in cities across Germany a boutique getaway in the wild without having to fly or trade the basic comforts of home for a tent. Read more about their mission here.
Refurbed secured $57M in their Series C, continuing in their mission to empower consumers to make sustainable tech choices. This achievement builds on the great success story of the Vienna-based company, which is already one of the fastest-growing online marketplaces for refurbished tech in Europe.

… a few things to be grateful of ❤️:

YardLink has secured a spot among The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Growing Companies in the UK. We’re happy to see the team behind Yardlink being awarded for their hard work on their mission to build faster, more connected and sustainable construction supply chains 🛠
Following their successful pitch at the Travolution.com Awards in London, Fairlyne has been designated Best Startup of the Year 2023, continuing on their mission to revolutionize the travel industry ✈️
And lastly… yours truly Speedinvest has been named Seed Fund of the Year by GB Bullhound! We’re thrilled to be recognized alongside Europe’s very best tech startups and investors and deeply thankful to everyone who has supported uis along the way, especially our founders and LPs!

…and even more news from our portfolio:

Julian Trautwein, founder & CEO of Raus, is hosted by Startups Insider, talking about sustainable travels, Raus’ impact on local businesses and their recent fundraising success (in German).
Packelp launched a partnership with Ankorstore, enabling all their merchants to level up their packaging experience.
Lapse keeps making the news: we are happy to see so many good user reception and reviews (also compared to other social apps), as this one from Raffi Chilingaryan, Founder of Steddy.
Stotles just published their Central Government Pipeline Report. If you’re interested inthe Public Sector and selling to governments, have a look at their insights into their 2023/2024 procurement roadmap uncovering which sectors entail the highest spending, governmental trends, strategic intentions and much more.
Inkitt has been signed by Entertainment 360, global film production company, for representation of Inkitt Original Stories into film or TV. This step marks an incredible milestone for the company and will help them move closer to realizing their vision of building a truly next-gen media company.

Last but not least... Be one of the first startups on Europe’s first-ever pre-seed marketplace map!

Our own Victor Huerbe and Marc Mühling are working on creating an exclusive map to showcase all pre-seed marketplaces in Europe.

If you're a marketplace founder who has not yet raised a seed round, this is your chance to get coverage!

Being on the map will not only help founders across the continent to connect with each other — it will get your startup in front of leading marketplace investors.

If you want to be featured, fill out the Typeform by Friday, December 22nd to make sure your startup is on the map 🚀

New Investments in Marketplaces Around the Globe

FoodTech, EdTech, HealthTech, Sustainability and much more…

With 27 deals announced, including Blockchain.com and Crisp, November 2023 marketplace deal activity increases compared to the previous months.

Join Us!

We are always on the lookout for top-tier talent! Have a look at our open positions at Speedinvest and across our portfolio.

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