Marketplaces gearing up for battle in 2021 ⚔️

How DoorDash gained customer trust by focusing on selection and quality over delivery speed and price.

Inspired by the infamous PayPal Mafia, French marketplace entrepreneurs are building their own “startup mafia” a.k.a. the BlaBlaMafia.

Learn how Walmart’s developers are using AWS‘ competitors, Azure and GCP, to build an e-commerce platform to take on Amazon.

From our recent Marketplace Conference, Speedinvest’s Philip Specht and Battery Venture’s Justin Da Rosa share learnings on how marketplace founders can improve their chances of being funded.

Bogdan Florin Ceobanu distills the seven key learnings from The Platform Economy by Sparkline Capital’s Kai Wu, including how network effects play a huge role in driving value. Link to full report in post.

2020 was the year of several high-profile marketplace IPOs, including Airbnb, DoorDash, Instacart and Wish. Venky Ganesan digs into the numbers to understand the state of marketplace businesses today. 

CoachHub has raised a $30m Series B to accelerate its growth in the digital coaching market and develop its think tank, Coaching Lab. The round was led by Draper Esprit with participation from all major existing investors, including yours truly.

Our new in-house team of operational experts is tasked with providing founders with hands-on support to grow strategically, build strong teams and networks, as well as validate US market fit.

Ten months after being valued at $18bn, Airbnb, the holiday rental marketplace, reached a valuation of $86bn on its first day of trading. Its shares more than doubled, closing at $144.71, a massive leap from the $68 at which Airbnb sold them to new investors in the pre-market.

Ankorstore, a B2B wholesale marketplace connecting independent shop owners and specialist brands with neighborhood retailers, has raised a $29.9 million Series A round. The round was led by Index Ventures with participation from GFC, Alven and Aglaé.

Brainly, the platform for crowdsourced homework, has raised a $80m Series D round after surpassing 350m monthly active users this fall. The round was led by existing investor, Learn Capital, with participation from Prosus Ventures, Runa Capital, Manta Ray and General Catalyst.