Ameet Shah, partner at Golden Ventures, on the economics of vertical SaaS marketplaces

We believe that new and upcoming B2B players now have the tools to overcome historical constraints, and that large B2B commerce aggregators will emerge over the next decade. Further, given the complexity of B2B transactions and the different vertical requirements (think aerospace vs. chemicals vs. apparel vs. food), we think vertical marketplaces c... See more

Vertical markets are particularly good candidates for a SaaS+fintech business model. While customers in horizontal markets often try different software vendors, resulting in multiple winners in a market segment, customers in vertical markets prefer purpose-built software for their specific industry and use cases.

Type of marketplaces

• SaaS: software that businesses access online and purchase via a subscription e.g. Slack, Adobe, Atlassian

• SaaS-like Network: any number of different models where a business sells software to businesses online and that software supports the interaction between the business customer and their end consumer. The business does not cha

... See more