Announcing Market One Capital investment in Magaloop — a trading platform for independent retail
We are very pleased to announce our investment in Magaloop, a trade platform for independent traders and FMCGs. We led the round alongside our friends at Piton Capital, Redalpine, Altantic Food Labs and FJ Labs.
At MOC we believe that new and upcoming B2B platforms now have the tools to overcome constraints of the past. Due to the complexity of B2B transactions and different industry characteristics we have built the conviction that vertical marketplaces are best-positioned to transition B2B platforms from offline to online. One of them is Magaloop, a B2B marketplace that connects independent traders (owner/family led kiosks, corner stores, mom’n’pops etc.) with wholesalers and FMCG brands.
Magaloop is growing fast and they are hiring! If you want to join the team check out open positions here: https://magaloop.com/jobs
There are over 50 million independent traders and a few hundred thousand local wholesalers worldwide who share similar struggles when interacting with each other. The current process is analog and opaque, without transparent pricing, no control over promotions/discounts and limited traceability and certainty of delivery on time. Orders are facilitated typically by phone without any process-based order confirmation. Simultaneously, it is not that uncommon to see orders sent/received through fax machines.
Step by step, Magaloop is resolving these bottlenecks with a platform that connects all participants of this market network by enabling independent traders (who proved to be a vital part of economies in the last months by offering proximity and convenience) to discover products, find the best offer and order from thousands of SKUs in the mobile app. On the other side of the marketplace, Magaloop enables FMCG brands and wholesalers to find new customers, manage the current customer base more efficiently, and analyze and predict sales of products. Currently, Magaloop operates in Berlin, Germany and with the fresh funding is building its presence in other regions.
Magaloop stands out from a wider movement of next-gen B2B vertical platforms which enable both sides of the marketplace to interact in a super-fast and convenient fashion. We could observe similar concepts in several segments, incl. restaurant < = > food supplier with Choco, Rekki, Katoo, Dagens Mat and Orderlion, or construction companies < = > material providers with Schüttflix, Bex, Simplo, Werkly and Inpera. They focus on the SMB segment (at least one side, often both) where procurement processes are fast and simple and where there’s still a considerably blue ocean environment compared to the enterprise segment populated by products from tech giants like Oracle, SAP or from startup incumbents in form of Scout RFP (Workday) or Scoutbee, to name a few. We expect that the above-mentioned verticals are just initial examples rather than a definite set of industries to be digitalized.
And lastly, Magaloop is powered by a rockstar team: Uwe Hoelzer, Michael Högemann, Oliver Rushpler and Luca Ongaro. They represent decades of industry expertise within the industry combining sales, strategy and product talents.
If you are interested in independent retail or you are developing B2B marketplace in different industry sector feel free to reach out to me at michal.mroczkowski@moc.vc or fulfill our online application.
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