Flippa raises $11 million to match buyers and sellers of online assets and companies

Flippa, an online marketplace for buying and selling online businesses and digital assets, announced its first venture-backed $11 million Series A round as it sees more than 600,000 searches per month from investors looking to connect with business owners.

OneVentures led the round and was joined by existing investors Andrew Walsh (former Hitwise CEO), Flippy co-founders Mark Harbottle and Matt Mickiewicz, 99designs, as well as new investors Catch.com.au founders Gabby and Hezi Leibovich; RetailMeNot.com founders Guy King and Bevan Clarke; and Reactive Media founders Tim O’Neill and Tim Fouhy.

The company, with bases in Austin and Australia, was founded in 2009 and facilitates exits for millions of online business owners, some of whom operate in e-commerce, blog, SaaS and app markets, with the latest data integration involving Shopify, Blake Hutchison, director general Flippa, told TechCrunch.

It considers Flippa to be the “investment bank for the 99%” of small businesses, providing a comprehensive platform that includes a proprietary enterprise valuation product – processing over 4,000 quotes each month – and a matching algorithm for connecting with qualified buyers.

Business owners can sell their companies directly through the platform and have the option of using the services of a broker or business advisor. The company also offers due diligence and acquisition financing from Thrasio-owned Yardline Capital and a new service called Flippa Legal.

“Our strategy is to verify at the source, which is the data,” Hutchison said. “Users can now connect to Stripe, QuickBooks Online, WooCommerce, Google Analytics and Admob, which means they can view their online business performance with one click and buyers can seamlessly assess financial and operational performance.”

The share of online retail sales in total retail sales increased to 19.6% in 2020 from 15.8% in 2019, largely driven by the global pandemic as sales shifted online due to store closures stationary.

Meanwhile, Amazon has 6 million sellers and Shopify sellers run over 1 million businesses. This has led to the emergence of venture capital-backed e-commerce aggregators that acquire successful companies to grow them, many of which are found through the Flippa marketplace, Hutchison said.

Flippa has over 3 million registered users and has added 300,000 new registered users in the last 12 months. Overall transaction volume is growing 100% year over year. Although the company was in operation for more than a decade, the company’s growth and opportunities led Hutchison to pursue venture capital dollars.

“There is a huge movement towards recognizing this as an asset class,” he said. “Right now, this asset class is undervalued, which is creating a massive swarm as investors snap up companies and aggregate them together. We see the future of these aggregators becoming “X company for apps” or “X company for blogs.” “

As such, the new funding will be used to double the company’s workforce to over 100 people as it expands offices around the world and establishes facilities in Melbourne, San Francisco and Austin. The company will also invest in marketing and product development to scale its business valuation tool, which Hutchison compares to a “Zillow Zestimate” but aimed at online businesses.

Nigel Dews, operating partner at OneVentures, has been following Flippa from the beginning. His company is one of the oldest venture capital firms in Australia and has a portfolio of 30 companies focusing on healthcare and technology.

He believes the company will lead to significant change for small businesses. The team, combined with Flippy’s ability to connect buyers and sellers, puts the company in a strong leadership position to leverage the market effect.

“Flippa is an incredible opportunity for us,” he added. “It’s not often that a world-leading company in a completely new category has incredible tailwinds. We also liked that the company is based in Australia, but half of its revenue comes from the US.”