The Rise Of The B2B Marketplace: Our Investment In Material Bank

B2B markets are many times bigger than B2C markets (annual global B2B spend is more than $100 trillion), and they’re much more offline. Indeed, massive B2B markets like wholesale and logistics remain opaque and intermediary-driven, with orders and payments flowing via email, SMS, fax, and paper check.

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

After 10+ years of consumer marketplaces, we're finally getting there with B2B marketplaces, partly because today's business owners are getting increasingly tech savvy.

- GMV TAM: How much B2B spend could the marketplace facilitate at scale?

The window of opportunity has largely closed, however, this is far from being the case for B2B marketplaces. Whilst consumers are able to order just about anything online, most businesses have not even started transacting online... That being said, I suspect that this category is where the next generation of outliers will be built.

...we evaluate early B2B marketplaces on three dimensions: