Marketplace Memo #3
Uber is cash-flowing, steals Delta from Lyft, eBay listing on Meta, REI shutters experiences, Mercor grows 6,400%, Whatnot raises $265M and much more!
Hi, it’s Colin! Welcome to Take Rate. I am excited to have you join the 2,600+ marketplace founders, operators, and investors who subscribe. Join the fun! 👇
👋 Welcome to the 3rd edition of the Marketplace Memo. My goal is to share curated news, content, and stories I am seeing related to marketplaces with a splash of color from me. Please enjoy and share with others!
This week, it is about charity.
The fires in Los Angeles have devastated the lives of so many people I know and many more. I felt it was only right to try to help. I looked at many charities, but I thought it was appropriate to share a marketplace that is giving back. Airbnb.org provides free, temporary housing for people displaced by the Los Angeles wildfires. The organization has partnered with 211 LA to connect people with a place to stay.
Your support is greatly appreciated.
Beginning of Year Vibes
The Bad
The beginning of the year started with heartbreaking news in New Orleans and Las Vegas. Two deadly incidents involved vehicles rented on Turo, and the attackers in New Orleans stayed in an Airbnb. It was a terrible start to the year for the sharing economy, and these incidents will cause deep introspection about trust and safety practices in the industry.
Turo’s CEO penned a heartfelt response to the attacks, sharing that the platform has “facilitated 27 million trips, over 90 million booked days, spanning 8.6 billion miles driven, through 12 years of operating history, and less than 0.10% of Turo trips have ended with a serious incident.” What is so hard about the situation is that “these individuals had valid driver’s licenses, clean criminal backgrounds, and were decorated US military servicemembers.” These are the traditional checks used to verify renters, and they are no less stringent than a standard car rental agency. What is clear is that these trust and safety systems will need to evolve to handle these new edge cases.
The Good
The IPO market is starting to open, and we are hearing rumors that companies will be eyeing this open window after the Service Titan IPO. Looking specifically at marketplaces, the names on the potential IPO list are Navan (formerly TripActions), StubHub, and Turo, to name a few. For marketplace service providers, we might expect Stripe and Klarna to also IPO. There are even predictions of public company M&A, with The Information predicting Amazon will buy Lyft. With the strong jobs report this week, there is a sense that the economy might be better than it seems on the surface. Hopefully, we can start to see movements this year in the public markets creating much needed liquidity for private markets.
The Highlight of the Week
A little over 15 years ago, Travis Kalanick made his first public tweet about Uber, marking the genesis of an incredible business that popularized and defined the ride-share category. h/t Howie.ai and the Internet History Calendar
Fast-forward to today and the company known for eye-watering burn and growth is generating cash despite uncertainty about the impact of autonomous vehicles.
News
“eBay shares soar as Meta allows listings on Facebook Marketplace.” - This looks like a good BD deal for eBay, but it is also a way for Facebook to quell antitrust concerns. CNBC
“Uber Announces $1.5 Billion Accelerated Share Repurchase Program” - As noted above, the company has strong cash flow while robotaxi competition concerns have hit its stock. Uber
“Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi Resigns from Self-Driving Truck Startup Aurora’s Board.” - I am unsure about the impetus here, but as autonomous vehicle competition is heating up, it will be interesting to see Uber’s strategy. TechCrunch
“Delta Expands Loyalty Program Partnership with Uber“ - Uber has replaced Lyft as Delta's rideshare partner. CNBC
“Vivid Remains Attractive Takeout Candidate Despite Rally, Says Citi” - Ticket marketplaces remain compelling businesses, and Vivid Seats is considering private equity offers. Markets Business Insider
“Peer-to-Peer Fashion Rental Apps Are Angling to Go Mainstream in 2025” - Economic conditions make peer-to-peer rentals more attractive, according to the article. I am skeptical we will see any of these businesses reach any real scale due to the constraints of having enough SKUs and sizes. Modern Retail
Autopilot has launched its portfolio marketplace, allowing investors to trade portfolios from popular X accounts like Litquidity and Unusual Whales. Disclosure: Autopilot is a Yonder portfolio company.
REI Shutters Experiences Business, Cuts Hundreds of Jobs - REI closed its managed marketplace for experiences, highlighting the business's cost. The business unit had never been profitable, illustrating how hard it is to run a business like this while employing the supply (guides). Retail Dive
“Buildforce Acquires Ladder” - Buildforce is a marketplace connecting electricians and contractors, and Ladder is a construction labor marketplace. This seems like a natural vertical expansion for Buildforce. Buildforce
Mercor grew 6400% year-over-year on the heels of a $30M Series A at a $250M valuation led by Benchmark in September 2024 (Bill Gurley came out of retirement for this one). The company is an AI hiring marketplace that enables top tech companies to hire experts across professions. Victor Lazarte from Benchmark shared in their funding announcement: “In the fast moving world of AI applications, Mercor stands out – growing 50% monthly, with tens of millions in revenue run rate, profitable, and led by three 21 year olds.” This is one of the first agent-led marketplaces to scale and has some unique characteristics. h/t for this one X
Fundraising
Whatnot raises a $265M Series E from Greycroft, DST Global, Avra, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Durable Capital Partners. This raises the company's valuation to $5 billion. WSJ (Paywall)
RestauRent raises $3.3M from Rogue Ventures, PS27 Ventures and Collide Capital. The company is a marketplace where you can book private event space. Boston Business Journal
Did I miss one? Email colin@yonder.vc with the subject line “Fundraising Announcement” to be included.
Reads
“AI and Marketplaces: The Future is Agent-Led Marketplaces” - Alright, this is a bit self-promotional, but if you haven’t read it, read my latest post on the future of marketplaces. 👇
“What Will Happen In 2025” - Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures predicts, among many other things, that “Waymo will surpass Uber in rides taken in San Franciso and Los Angeles by the end of 2025.” AVC
“#01 Why B2B Marketplaces Are the Next Big Thing” - Sonia Nagar from SNAK Venture Partners walks through their thesis on B2B marketplaces for old-line industries. If you are a B2B marketplace on the path to a seed round, they are a VC firm to talk to.
“Market Sizing in Vertical Software” - Nic Poulos of Euclid Ventures explores “how big is big enough” of a TAM for VC investments. Their analysis suggests that starting market size is only loosely correlated with enterprise value and that “the ability to grow TAM is more important than TAM itself.”
“Altimeter Capital Partner Says AI Will Transform Travel Search: ‘It’s Already Happening’” - Thomas Reiner believes that the current AI tools are already shifting the dynamic from the metasearch paradigm to one where brands get more direct bookings. I tend to agree with this take. Skift (Paywall)
Watch or Listen
“The Mindshare Advantage: Marketplace Success With Boris Wertz of Version One Ventures” - Boris Wertz shares his thoughts on building marketplaces, emphasizing how to aggregate and retain demand at scale. Mostly Metrics
“Effective M&A Strategies for Marketplace Growth” -
with another post on growth strategies for marketplaces. This is a thoughtful post about the realities of M&A as a growth lever.
Marketplace Jobs
Want to see your job listed here? Email colin@yonder.vc with the subject line “Job Posting” to be included or get your job featured!
Thanks for reading!
That is a wrap for the week! As always, please email me at colin@yonder.vc with any missed feedback or news. Hot tips are always welcome. Please don’t forget to subscribe and follow me on X and LinkedIn for other great marketplace content. If you want to book a call, you can find me on Intro.
This week, it is about charity.
The fires in Los Angeles have devastated the lives of so many people I know and many more. I felt it was only right to try to help. I looked at many charities, but I felt it was appropriate to share a marketplace that is giving back. Airbnb.org provides free, temporary housing for people displaced by the Los Angeles wildfires. The organization has partnered with 211 LA to connect people with a place to stay.
Your support is greatly appreciated.
About Me:
Colin is a marketplace geek and the General Partner of Yonder, a pre-seed marketplace fund that invests in marketplaces that create new economies. He has also been a long-time advisor to marketplaces, helping them with product growth, monetization, liquidity optimization, and strategy. Previously, he was the CPO/CRO at Outdoorsy and worked at Tripping.com, Ancestry.com, Justanswer, and the Federal Reserve.