The Road to the 2024 Marketplace Conference! Earlybird Spring ticket release!
Hot off the press, this is the 53rd edition of The Marketplace Snippet curated by Irene and Mathias on behalf of the Speedinvest Marketplaces & Consumer team đ„
In this edition:
- Announcement of The 2024 Marketplace Conference: date and content theme announced! With an exciting snapshot of our first speakers.
- The background story of Redditâs stellar $748M IPO
- Why consumer marketplaces are poised to outperform their SaaS peers
- Out now: How to scale by Index Ventures!
If youâve missed past newsletters or simply canât get enough, catch up on recent editions here.
The Marketplace Conference: Tuesday Septâ 24 2024
We are thrilled to announce the first release of early bird tickets for our Tuesday September 24th, 2024 annual marketplace conference.
Hosted in downtown Berlin each fall, The Marketplace Conference is now the largest, dedicated European and US marketplace conference, drawing over 500 attendees, with a focus on the most selected and salient content over the prior 12 months.
The 2024 Marketplace Conference anticipated content and themeâŠ
This yearâs marketplace conference theme draws heavily from AI, underpinned by its exceptional growth and global attention over the last 18 months.
Therefore, we are thrilled to announce that the 2024 Marketplace Conference official title is âUnraveling the Hype: Unveiling AI's Evolution in the Marketplace.â
Even though AI adoption seems to be the hype of 2024 (and even 2023), at Speedinvest we believe that we are still at the nascent stages of our AI journey. For example, while awareness of AI is high, only half of all American adults, aged 12 to 44, currently use AI. Yet, over 100 million adults are expected to use GenAI by 2024, rising further still to 117 million by 2025.
The ramifications on marketplace companies are significant - so much so, that, as our friends at Forerunner Ventures note in The Information, âWe [will] emerge in the AI era [with] the same scale as the opportunities that emerged from the internet and mobile shifts.â
This yearâs conference will address both the exceptional opportunities and challenges that go hand-in-hand with the advent of generative AI within marketplaces.
The 2024 Marketplace Conference initial speaker line-upâŠ
We are thrilled to announce that we already have aligned a set of excellent speakers, spanning from European founders to US investors, already committed, with many more in the works!
This September, we are so excited to welcome Pete Flint (NFX), Nikolaus Volk (Founder and CEO of Kyte), and Christine Kim (Greylock Partners) on stage, among others.
Please stay tuned for our May 2024 edition of The Snippet, where we will continue to publicize and write about our incredible speaker line-up, in addition to a promising content agenda!
Application processâŠ
Due to exceptional demand last year for tickets, for our early bird tickets, we have opened an application process, which will be reviewed and approved within a few days.
To apply for an early bird ticket, please go here!
Any questions, please reach out to Fabienne Howard.
Notes & News From Marketplace Companies & Operators
- Reflect upon how the hotel property marketplace and software Mews continues to win!
- The Amsterdam-headquartered, Mews, marketplace and hotel management software system announced that it raised âŹ101 million in a round led by existing investor Kinnevik, alongside Revaia, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Notion Capital and new investor LGVP. The new funding values the company at $1.2 billion!
- Discover a detailed primer on the startup advantage of AI from the co-founder and former CEO of Trulia!
- Pete Flint (one of our exciting speakers for the 2024 Marketplace Conference!) former CEO, founder and current General Partner at NFX, discusses how the best founders, including those of marketplaces, will be able to sustain an advantage of generative AI.
- Redditâs stellar $748m IPO - a reopening of the public markets!
- Founded in 2005, Reddit has been a staple of the internet, the âself-proclaimed front-pageâ. Last week, the company soared on its IPO debut at the New York Stock Exchange, closing at $50.44 (48% above its IPO price.) Still, questions on its retail investors endure!
- An excellent recap on marketplace monetization by Adi Thacker!
- Led by Adi Thacker, who previously led monetization at Facebook Marketplace, TikTok, and now Poshmark, the Everything Marketplaces Community workshop delved into typical monetisation paths and considerations for marketplaces.
- Food delivery endures..and even continues apace!
- Wonder, Lore's New York City-based food delivery startup, completed a $700 million funding round led by Dragoneer and is reflective of the stellar growth of the food delivery market, which is estimated to reach $536 billion by 2036.
- Post pandemic, the eCommerce aggregators consolidate!
- Razor Group, one of the leading aggregators and darlings of the Covid-19 pandemic, has continued to consolidate..except this time has acquired one of its competitors, rather than buying an extended roll-up.
Insights From Marketplace Investors
- A new and exciting thesis on B2B marketplaces, as outlined by our friend Fabrice Grinda, at FJ Labs!
- Founding partner and former marketplace founder, Fabrice, notes how the B2B world of marketplaces has yet to come of age, but that the timing in 2024 is ripe.
- An excellent read showcasing how consumer startups (including marketplaces) are poised to outperform their enterprise and software peers!
- Our friends at Forerunner Ventures have compiled detailed research on the path and - success - of consumer companies in public markets.
- What are the secrets to scaling a marketplace business?
- Our repeat marketplace conference speaker, Jack Greco, co-founder of ACV auctions details the elements necessary to build any successful marketplace.
- What might be a helpful toolkit for founders to scale, including those of marketplaces?
- Look no further... Our friends at Index Ventures have written a thoughtful book covering over 200,000 career profiles from over 200 startups in a candid and thorough account.
- Paul Graham, erstwhile marketplace investor explores the process of starting small with ideas and building up to a grand vision
- Watch the clip from the Startup Archive here.
- LastlyâŠour very own Venture Partner, Sameer Singh, has signed an official partnership with Reforge!
- We are thrilled to announce that Sameerâs Applied Network Effects course is launching on Reforge in May 2024! Please apply here.
News From Our Portfolio
- GoStudent remains on the go as the company successfully reaches profitability!
- Our stellar portfolio company and online student marketplace, GoStudent, has announced yet another distinction, the award of profitability!
- Felix Ohswald notes that the company is not just EBITDA positive, but actually is maintaining cash flow profitability too.
- TIER and Dott have formally merged - creating the European champion of mobility!
- With revenues of âŹ250m, supporting over 125M trips a year in more than 20 countries, the newly combined business creates the go-to European winner of shared micro-mobility.
- Our consumer and marketplaces portfolio does it again..we are so proud that Inkitt has featured in the FTâs 1000: the annual ranking of Europeâs fastest growing companies!
- Read more about Europeâs fastest growing companies that have continued to grow, even thrive, despite enduring macro challenges.
New Investments in Marketplaces Around the Globe
With 30 deals announced in March, including the Series D of Razor Group after their acquisition of the U.S.-based player Perch, marketplace deal activity is further increasing within this year.
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 and check out our talent pool, ââan exclusive platform connecting top executives 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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