Investors place their bet on B2B marketplaces

Big money continues to flow heavily into B2B marketplaces, says a new Dealroom.co study of venture capital data. But more money still is targeted for B2C

In 2022, only 19% of all the funds investors sank into global marketplace deals went to B2B markets. That compares with 14% in 2021, 8.6% in 2020, and 13% in 2019 and 2018.

“Venture capital (VC) funding has grown significantly in the last five years, but funding levels are still only 19% of that of their B2C counterparts,” says Dealroom.co.

Dealroom.co, a data and analysis provider for venture capital funding, estimates that total comprised enterprise value of B2B marketplaces in 2022 was $241 billon, compared with $25 billion in 2015. Enterprise value is the total value of a company, defined in terms of its financing.

Investors pumped $6.4 billion into B2B marketplaces in the first six months of 2022, compared with $1.4 billion in 2017. The biggest fundraising deals in 2022 included Flexport ($935 million), Moglix ($325 million) and Elasticrun ($300 million). Flexport and Elasticrun are logistics market marketplaces, and Monglix is a marketplace for financial and lending services.

Other B2B fundraising metrics from Dealroom.co include:

• There were 36 B2B marketplace deals in the first half of 2022 versus 54 in the last six months of 2021.
• There have been 70 rounds of funding for marketplaces in the global logistics market. That compares with just 30 in the industrial market.
• In the last five years, $19.4 billion has flowed into deals for U.S. markets. That compares with $9.9 billion for China and $7.3 billion for France.
• In general, investors tend to see B2B marketplace investments as more recession proof than B2C.

“B2B marketplaces experience smoother shocks in recessions due to longer sales cycles, lower churn, lower competition in specialized segments, and value chain demand delays between consumer