Marketplace startup ecosystem
We track 163 organisations in this sector across 6+ countries.
Showing 1–20 of 163Marketplace
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33East
33East was founded by Demetrios Zoppos and Yiannis Eftychiou and selected by the European Investment Fund in 2023 as Cyprus's first EIF-backed venture capital fund. It closed a €26 million debut fund in January 2025, anchored by the Cyprus Equity Fund (NRRP) and private investors including the Bank of Cyprus. The fund targets pre-seed and seed-stage startups with a Cyprus connection, writing cheques of €100K–€1M across enterprise software, fintech, gaming, marketplaces, logistics, digital health, and climate tech. First portfolio companies include Electryone AI, an AI-powered renewable-energy management platform.
57hours
57hours is a Croatian-founded marketplace that connects travelers with vetted local guides for outdoor adventures such as hiking, mountain biking, backcountry skiing, sailing and rock climbing across destinations including Croatia, the European Alps, Norway, Japan and the US. The platform lets guides list multi-day trips and travelers book directly, and it runs an EU-funded project alongside its commercial marketplace.
Adam
Adam is a marketplace for tradespeople, effectively an on-demand platform for home renovation and construction services. Customers can book vetted painters, electricians, or renovation crews, while providers receive steady demand and streamlined scheduling. The company has expanded across Europe, including the UK, Spain, and France. By 2026, Adam is a visible Czech marketplace success in the home services sector.
AdataSoftware R&D
Belarusian Hi-Tech Park resident founded in 2020 that develops, sells and implements its own software for the automotive spare parts trade, including online resources, catalogues and services for the sector. Its head office is in Minsk with representative offices across Brest, Gomel, Grodno, Mogilev and Vitebsk.
Alejandro Artacho
Co-founder and CEO of Spotahome, the Madrid-based mid- to long-term rental marketplace. He co-founded the proptech in 2014 to let tenants book verified homes online without in-person viewings, backed by Seaya and others.
All Iron Ventures
Founded 2017. Seed-stage investor focused on marketplaces, e-commerce, and travel tech. All Iron Ventures is an accelerator programme based in Bilbao, Spain. The programme supports startups in Marketplaces, E-commerce, Travel Tech.
Allani
Allani is a Polish fashion-discovery and shopping aggregator that lets users browse clothing and accessories across hundreds of online stores from a single interface. Led by Mateusz Romanowski (also an early Brainly angel), Allani operates a popular consumer product in Polish e-commerce, monetizing through affiliate revenue and direct partnerships with retailers.
Allset
Overview: Allset is a food-tech startup that provides a platform for online restaurant ordering and pickup. Originally launched as a dine-in pre-ordering app, Allset allows customers to pre-order meals at restaurants so that the food is ready at a scheduled time and they can "skip the line". Over time, Allset expanded to enable standard takeout orders, curbside pickups, and even contactless dine-in where you arrive and your meal is served immediately. The convenience factor is central: Allset's app lets users browse menus of partner restaurants, pay in advance (including tip), and streamline the eating experience without waiting. For restaurants, Allset offers a marketplace to attract busy professionals and on-the-go diners, while avoiding the high fees of delivery services. By focusing on pickup and in-restaurant efficiency, Allset positioned itself as a lower-cost alternative to delivery apps for eateries, promising no couriers or delivery logistics - just seamless pickup transactions. As of 2021, Allset had thousands of restaurant partners, particularly in major U.S. cities, and had broadened its use-case to also support contactless dining during the COVID-19 pandemic. Founding Story (2015): Allset was founded in 2015 by two Ukrainians, Stas Matviyenko (Stan) and Anna Polishchuk, who moved to California to grow the business. The founders previously built a mobile payments startup in Ukraine (Settle), which gave them insight into restaurant payment pain points. They noticed that busy professionals often have limited lunch break time and that waiting for service at restaurants ate up much of it. Thus, Allset was conceived to let users pre-order and pre-pay for meals so they could "set" everything in advance and have all set when they arrive (hence the name). The concept started with a few restaurants in San Francisco and New York participating. Early growth was modest as it required signing up restaurants one-by-one and changing consumer habits. However, by offering a win-win - restaurants get more turnover at lunch with guaranteed orders, customers get time savings - Allset steadily gained traction. Matviyenko and Polishchuk leveraged their Ukrainian tech team to build the app cost-effectively. In 2016, they got into the 500 Startups accelerator, which provided seed funding and mentorship in Silicon Valley. By 2017-2018, Allset expanded to multiple U.S. cities and refined its model to also include standard takeout ordering. Product and Market: Allset's target users were urban professionals and corporate employees looking for efficient lunch options. It integrated with over 7,000 restaurants in the U.S. and also some in Ukraine by 2023. Cuisine-wise it was diverse - from fast-casual chains to local eateries. The platform's business model charges restaurants a commission per order, but it touted itself as having significantly lower fees than delivery apps like UberEats or DoorDash. This is because pickup orders do not involve logistics costs. Allset also at times charged consumers small convenience fees or offered a subscription for zero fees. Its competition includes not just the big delivery apps, but also restaurant reservation systems and point-of-sale providers who have added mobile ordering. However, Allset carved a niche in "order ahead for dine-in/pickup." During COVID-19, Allset quickly shifted focus to contactless pickup and curbside service, which aligned with public health needs. The app usage grew as more consumers opted for takeout and avoiding crowds. Post-pandemic, Allset continued to be relevant as many users, accustomed to mobile ordering, kept using it for efficiency. Traction: By the early 2020s, Allset had facilitated tens of millions of orders. It was particularly popular in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston. The app had over 2 million users and a strong repeat usage among its core demographic (e.g., office workers who would use it daily for lunch). Allset's restaurant network grew to include national chains as well as local favorites. A reported figure from around 2021 indicated nearly 7,000 restaurant partners across the US and Ukraine, illustrating its significant network. Partnerships with large chains (for example, they onboarded Panera Bread in some regions) helped validate the concept. In terms of scale, Allset's gross merchandise volume (the total value of orders through the platform) reached eight figures in USD annually. Press coverage often highlighted Allset as a rising star in the on-demand dining space, and it received awards like being listed in Forbes' 30 Under 30 (Matviyenko was honored in 2018). Funding and Investors: Allset attracted a mix of Silicon Valley and Ukrainian investors through its journey. Early on, it raised a $3.35M combined seed (including a $1M pre-seed from SMRK, a Ukrainian VC). In 2018, Allset secured an $8.25M Series A, with investors like Greycroft, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), VK (Digital Garage), and SMRK participating. This round helped fuel its expansion to new cities. By 2020, Allset had raised a total of about $16.6M in funding. A notable investor, Andreessen Horowitz, gave credibility given their prominence. Additionally, the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) co-invested in Allset, a nod to its Ukrainian roots and growth potential. The company was relatively capital-efficient, using a distributed team in Kyiv for development while its sales team signed restaurants in the U.S. According to PitchBook, Allset's valuation was healthy, though it never reached unicorn status. Acquisition by SoundHound (2024): A major milestone came in June 2024, when SoundHound AI, a Nasdaq-listed voice AI company, announced it had acquired Allset. The deal amount was undisclosed, but it marked a successful exit for the founders and investors. SoundHound's interest was in combining Allset's marketplace and restaurant partnerships with SoundHound's voice assistant tech for ordering (they have a voice ordering system used by restaurants). Through this acquisition, Allset's team (Matviyenko and Polishchuk) and technology joined SoundHound, aiming to power voice-enabled food ordering across SoundHound's large client network. The acquisition can be seen as a strategic fit: Allset brings the restaurant relationships and order workflow, while SoundHound brings cutting-edge voice AI. Allset's co-founders took on roles within SoundHound's leadership to continue growing this combined vision. For the Ukrainian startup scene, Allset's acquisition was a proud moment - a startup founded by Ukrainians achieved a notable exit on the global stage. Achievements and Impact: Allset's journey demonstrated the strength of Ukrainian entrepreneurs in the global arena of food tech. The company managed to enter the ultra-competitive U.S. food app market and carve a space for itself. It was recognized as one of Ukraine's top startups in multiple rankings. The company's growth also had a direct impact: it provided business to restaurants (especially small ones) by bringing them customers who might not have come in otherwise. Its focus on reducing wait times resonated with modern consumers' demand for convenience. Notably, Allset survived and adapted through the pandemic - offering features like dine-in ordering via QR code to minimize contact. This nimbleness likely made it an attractive acquisition target. Allset also set an example of transatlantic collaboration: R&D in Ukraine, business development in the U.S., which is a model other Ukrainian startups have since followed. Post-acquisition, the Allset app and brand continue to operate, now with the backing of SoundHound. With voice technology integration, a future use case might be ordering meals by simply speaking to your car or smart device, which could be the next level of convenience Allset helps enable. For Anna Polishchuk and Stas Matviyenko, their success with Allset has cemented them as influential figures in Ukraine's startup community, often mentoring younger founders and investing in new startups. Sources: vestbee.com, kyivpost.com, vcnewsdaily.com.
Alven
Alven is an independent Paris-based venture capital firm founded in 2000 by Guillaume Aubin and Charles Letourneur, making it one of the oldest and most established VC institutions in France. The firm manages €2 billion in assets under management across six successive funds, with its latest fund closing at €350 million in 2022. Alven focuses on seed through Series B investments across B2B software, fintech, marketplaces, developer tools, and consumer technology, predominantly backing French and European startups. Notable unicorn investments include Qonto, Dataiku, and Algolia, alongside a broader portfolio of 164 companies that includes Ankorstore, OpenClassrooms, Happn, and Meero.
Ankorstore
Ankorstore is a Paris-based B2B wholesale marketplace founded in 2019 that connects independent brands and makers with independent retailers across Europe, handling discovery, ordering, payment terms and logistics. It aims to help local shops compete with large chains and reached unicorn status in 2022.
ANote Music
ANote Music is a Luxembourg-based platform that lets investors buy, sell and earn royalties from music catalogs, framing music royalties as an uncorrelated asset class for portfolio diversification. The company reports over 45,000 investors on its platform, payouts roughly every four days on average, and around 10% average yearly royalty returns since 2020.
Apostolos Apostolakis
A Greek serial entrepreneur and investor, Apostolos frequently co-invests in Poland, especially in marketplaces. He has at least two Polish marketplace startups in his portfolio, one being Packhelp (custom packaging). He brings experience from the Southeastern European startup scene into Poland. Associated startups: Packhelp, e-food (expanded to Poland), and other e-commerce platforms.
Aptoide
Independent alternative Android app store and distribution platform with 430M+ users and 1M+ apps, one of the largest Android stores globally, with an AppCoins crypto rewards layer. Founded 2009.
Artox Lab
Minsk digital company and Hi-Tech Park resident founded in 2012 that builds its own consumer products rather than working only to contract. Its portfolio centres on two Belarusian services: 103.by, a medical ecosystem covering health information and appointments, and Relax.by, a city guide for planning leisure time. The company works across healthcare, urban lifestyle and digital services.
AUTO1 Group
AUTO1 Group is Europe's leading digital automotive platform, founded in Berlin in 2012 by Christian Bertermann and Hakan Koç. The company connects used car buyers and sellers across Europe through its B2B platform AUTO1.com for trade dealers and its B2C brand Autohero for consumers. Listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since 2021 (ticker: AG1), AUTO1 Group has a market capitalisation of approximately €5.5 billion as of May 2026 and employs nearly 7,000 people.
Awesomic
Subscription talent marketplace founded in Kyiv in 2020 (Y Combinator S21) that matches companies with vetted designers, developers and marketers within 24 hours.
Back Market
Back Market is a leading European marketplace for refurbished electronics, connecting certified refurbishers with consumers looking for affordable, sustainable alternatives to new devices. The platform covers smartphones, laptops, tablets, and other consumer electronics, with quality grading and warranty guarantees. Valued at $5.7 billion after its 2022 Series E, Back Market operates across Europe and the US and is a flagship example of the circular economy model.
BallSquad
Mobile platform for booking public and private sports facilities, helping players find and reserve courts and pitches. Founded in Warsaw, targeting the growing market for accessible recreational sports infrastructure.
BlaBlaCar
BlaBlaCar is the world’s leading long-distance carpooling platform, often hailed as France’s flagship startup success. Founded in 2006 by Frédéric Mazzella (along with Francis Nappez and Nicolas Brusson), BlaBlaCar was born from Mazzella’s realization that countless car journeys had empty seats. The platform (named after users’ self-described chattyness level – “Bla”, “BlaBla”, or “BlaBlaBla”) connects drivers with spare seats to passengers traveling the same way, so they can share the ride and costs. Today, BlaBlaCar has a 100 million-member community across 22+ countries, serving over 25 million travelers per quarter pre-pandemic. It operates in most of Europe and parts of Latin America and Asia, having successfully localized carpooling in markets like Germany, Russia, Brazil, and Turkey. The company also branched into bus travel: in 2018, BlaBlaCar acquired Ouibus from SNCF, rebranding it BlaBlaBus, to offer intercity bus routes alongside carpool rides. BlaBlaCar’s business model charges a roughly 10–20% booking fee from passengers in mature markets, though in new markets it often launches free to build liquidity. Known for its strong community culture, BlaBlaCar emphasizes trust – it introduced verified profiles, ratings, and even an optional “Ladies Only” carpool option. The company achieved unicorn status in 2015 when it raised $200 million at a $1.6 billion valuation and later was valued around $2 billion. Despite the pandemic’s impact on travel, BlaBlaCar rebounded by 2022, even reporting profitability. In 2023, it raised €100 million in financing to fuel growth. BlaBlaCar is often cited in case studies (Harvard, etc.) as a pioneer of the sharing economy in Europe, proving that a people-powered platform can transform intercity transport. By bringing cost-effective travel to millions and fostering new friendships on the road, BlaBlaCar has truly brought “ridesharing” into the mainstream – and stands as one of Europe’s few consumer-tech unicorns with global reach.
Bloop
Bloop is a Lisbon-based social-commerce startup founded by Francisco Rodrigues (CEO) and João Neves (CTO), both alumni of companies including Amazon, Farfetch, Microsoft and Uber. Conceived in 2022 and formalised in 2024, it operates what it calls the world's first social shopping network — a platform that fuses a product marketplace with the mechanics of a social feed, turning ordinary consumers into paid recommenders. Users earn wallet credits of up to 10% of a purchase's value for publishing authentic recommendations, and up to 5% commission on referral sales, while sellers gain community-generated exposure instead of paid ads. At its July 2025 public beta the platform carried 200,000+ products from 150+ brands and reported a ~4.5% conversion rate. Bloop has raised about €1.5M in pre-seed capital co-led by Monarque Funds and Insure Broker, including one of Portugal's largest retail crowdfunding rounds, and targeted a €5M seed to expand into Spain and France.
