Multiple Winners in B2B Marketplaces
Ameet Shah, partner at Golden Ventures, on the economics of vertical SaaS marketplaces
Multiple winners are normal in B2B marketplaces because the market is usually split by geography, workflow, and customer type before any one company can fully centralize it. A marketplace that works for a pharmacy wholesaler, a restaurant ordering stack, or a home improvement distributor has to match local supply, local regulations, and the exact way buyers already place orders, which creates room for several venture scale businesses in parallel.
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Mirakl shows how big the opportunity can get without becoming the only winner. It powers marketplaces for many incumbent retailers and distributors, with $11.2B in GMV across clients in 2024, proving value can accrue at the infrastructure layer while end markets stay fragmented across many operators.
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In practice, B2B buyers often care more about fit than global liquidity. A restaurant may buy software that handles phone orders and delivery, while a wholesaler may need catalog management, seller onboarding, and negotiated pricing. Those are different products, so separate leaders can emerge around distinct workflows.
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Geography matters more in B2B than in many consumer markets. Local sales density, regional compliance, and supplier relationships can make winning one state or one vertical more attractive than expanding nationally, especially when concentrated local demand lowers service costs and improves fulfillment reliability.
Going forward, the biggest B2B marketplaces are likely to look less like single category monopolies and more like a stack of regional and vertical leaders. The companies that win most cleanly will be the ones that combine marketplace liquidity with workflow software, payments, ads, or fulfillment that make their niche harder to displace.