It’s Marketplace Meetup Month: Join us in New York and Berlin!

It’s Marketplace Meetup Month: Join us in New York and Berlin!

Hot off the presses, this is the 51st edition of The Marketplace Snippet curated by Irene and Mathias on behalf of the Speedinvest Marketplaces & Consumer team 🔥

In this edition:

  • Sign ups are open for our New York and Berlin Marketplace Meetups
  • Our marketplace predictions for 2024
  • From building to investing: The Story of Jack Greco
  • How to summarize your business

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.

New York and Berlin Meetups: Save the date (and your spot)!


It’s finally time and we are so excited to soon meet our favorite Marketplace Community again! In February we will host not one, but two (!) Marketplace Meetups. Save the dates:

For our US Crew, we will host an exclusive Marketplace Meetup at the legendary New York Stock Exchange on February 20th, 2024 starting at 3:20pm around the topic of AI in Marketplaces. Join us, FJ Labs and our amazing speakers and guests in an event to connect, collaborate and catalyze. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur, a startup enthusiast, or someone just curious about the latest trends, this is your chance to join us in a new, overseas chapter for our Marketplace Community. 


And for our crew in Europe, we will host an exciting Marketplace Meetup on February 29th, 2024 in the Berlin offices of our Partner Globant, starting at 5:30pm. The event will be centered around Mastering Marketplace Monetisation. We aim to explore the dynamic landscape of revenue generation and embedded finance in digital marketplaces, with insights from seasoned marketplace entrepreneurs and operators. Whether you’re starting your business, scaling it up or are just interested to learn more about marketplace models, this event is for you!

In order to ensure an intimate atmosphere and the best experience for all of our guests, both events will be invite only.

If you would like to join us, act fast and save your spot! Sign up here for New York and here for Berlin. We are looking forward to meeting you!

Insights From Marketplace Operators

What’s ahead for Uber?

Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, joins the latest episode of This Week in Startups and deep dives into why he joined the company, the early magic that captivated investors, as well as their growth and plans for the future. Listen to it here! 🎧

From B2B Building to B2B Investing

Jack Greco, Founder of ACV Auctions and now Investor in B2B Marketplaces as well as previous speaker at The Marketplace Conference, joins the latest episode of Everything Marketplaces and shares insights about his journey as a founder plus the key learning he brought into his career as an investor.

Where would you stand in Public Markets?

What’s the relation between EV / Revenue multiples for Marketplaces and the Rule of 40? Yoram Wijngaarde, Founder & CEO of Dealroom, shares his analysis of how these are interrelated, helping founders understand where they would stand in the Public Market.

What is happening at Carta?

Ted Merz, Founder & Editor at Principals Media, reconstructs the recent developments that brought Carta to the center of a modern communications storm and opens up a debate on how to best approach customer complaints (and social media). Read the whole story here!

On the importance of starting small

Peter Thiel, Founder and former CEO of PayPal, discusses the importance of mastering a niche before venturing into larger markets, showcasing multiple success stories from the Silicon Valley, from Amazon, to Facebook and Airbnb.

Insights From Marketplace Investors

What’s in store for 2024?

AI, Quantum and Climate have monopolized 2023, but what’s in store for 2024? We turned to our in-house experts to better understand what to expect for the year to come across different sectors. Take a look at their predictions, including some on Marketplaces from our own Mathias Ockenfels.

Are referral programs really good for your growth?

Andrew Chen, General Partner at a16z, summarizes his learning from referral programs in the early days at Uber and gives some advices to founders on how to best leverage these for future growth.

Can you summarize your business?

Until you can express your business in one sentence, you can’t fully understand it. Lenny Rachitsky and Dan Hockenmaier share their framework on how to summarize your business in an equation, helping founders to not only identify the inputs that drive their business, but also to identify which metrics to track and where to leverage impact.

Efficient, “unhinged” and personal: What’s hot in Marketplaces?

What did 2023 winners and losers in the Marketplace world teach us and what can we expect for the new year? Take a look at the new issue of the yearly State of Marketplaces report from our friends at Battery Ventures for a great deep dive into the triumphs and challenges faced by publicly traded marketplaces and a snapshot of what lies ahead.

What’s new in investments: A talk with Mathias and Magnus

Join our own Mathias Ockenfels and Magnus Karnehm, Principal at Left Lane Capital, in this episode of Startup Insider for an in depth discussion about the recent funding successes of Kittl and Travelperk from an investor perspective. Listen to the episode here (in German)!

News From Our Portfolio

TIER and Dott are partnering up for the future of sustainable mobility

Our portfolio company TIER is partnering up with peer European leading e-scooter operator Dott. The two companies are jointly committing to a higher level of sustainability standards and practices across all areas of the e-scooter industry. Take a look here at their ten environmental and social commitments.

Congrats to Kittl on their Series B

Just a year after raising $11.6 million, we are incredibly proud to see our portfolio company Kittl raise another $36 million in a Series B round led by IVP, enabling the company to continue on their mission to revolutionize online design creation.

On Schüttflix and their road to success

We are excited to see Christian Hülsewig and Schüttflix featured in this issue of Wirtschaftswoche, detailing the rise to success of this great team and their ambitions to further revolutionize the construction industry. Take a look at the full issue here (paywalled).

Last but not least… The final closing of our fourth fund generation

We at Speedinvest are extremely excited to announce the closing of our fourth early-stage fund, Speedinvest 4, at €350 million, surpassing the initial goal of €300 million. The funds will be used to further enhance our portfolio and back a new generation of founders. Multiple investments have already been made last year via Speedinvest 4 and we are looking forward to making many more.

New Investments in Marketplaces Around the Globe

FoodTech, EdTech, HealthTech, Sustainability and much more…

With 15 deals announced, including TravelPerk, Finn and our own Kittl, January 2024 marketplace deal activity is starting the year on a positive trend.

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. You can also check out our talent pool, ​​an exclusive platform connecting top executives (like you?) with over 300 dynamic companies in our portfolio - join now to gain access to a pool of 1000+ open positions across various industries.

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