B2B marketplaces enter new phase

The world of B2B marketplaces can be a glamorous if not exciting one at times. After all, B2B marketplaces are the fastest growing digital commerce sales channel, based on a Digital Commerce 360 projection.

And even in a softer economy and with tougher scrutiny, investors are still pumping serious money into B2B ecommerce. For example, Freightos Ltd. raised $80 million in new funding in January with an initial public offering. Freightos is a new public B2B marketplace for air and ocean freight that brings together shippers and freighters.

And Boston-based PartsTech, a B2B marketplace and parts procurement platform, raised $35 million in new funding in May. The influx of working and business development cash from OpenView and PartsTech’s existing investors, including Insight Partners and BP Ventures, will be used for new product and business development, says founder and CEO Greg Kirber.

But as exciting as the allure of B2B marketplaces can be to many investors and others, the B2B marketplace market is entering a new development phase. In the last two years, the B2B marketplace market has been dominated by new business expansion with the launch of hundreds of new platforms in multiple industries.

“Marketplace verticals that can make a credible argument for the merits of a SaaS-enabled marketplace business will continue to attract outsized investments,” says Bowery Capital CEO Michael Straub. “Marketplaces that offer meaningful SaaS tooling will also generally fare better when it comes to fundraising, compared with marketplaces that effectively function as trading websites and lack a software component.”

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