Historic Marketplace Returns on Marketplaces for Series A and PE Investors

European marketplaces have produced some outstanding exits for Series A and PE investors.

We analysed the set of European VC (Series A+) and PE-backed marketplaces, where both entry and exit data are available. The resulting 40 European exits completed between 2014 and 2026 are set out in the graphic below.

In Food & Grocery, investors who backed Deliveroo (food-delivery marketplace) at their ~$93M Series A in 2015 had made ~113x by the time of its ~$10.5bn London listing in 2021 — with entry-round backers Hoxton Ventures, Index Ventures and Accel among those cashing out.

In Consumer, a PE consortium of Cinven, Permira and MidEuropa earned about 3.6x on their investment in Allegro (Poland's “Amazon”), entering at ~$3.25bn in 2017 and IPOing at ~$11.6bn in 2020.

In Circular Economy, an investor in Vinted (P2P second-hand fashion marketplace) at its ~$120M post-money raise in 2014 could have cashed out at 78x during the April 2026 secondary that valued Vinted at ~$9.3bn. Most decided to hold out for more. Series A investors in Depop (another P2P second-hand fashion marketplace), including Octopus Ventures, Balderton Capital and Creandum, who entered at ~$68M post in 2019, made about 24x when Etsy acquired it for ~$1.6bn in 2021.

DN Capital, Cherry Ventures and Target Global, who backed AUTO1 Group (used-car marketplace) at ~$312M in 2013, would have made roughly 30x at its ~$9.2bn IPO in 2021.

In Real Estate, Apax Partners and Altamir made about 8.2x on Idealista (Spanish real estate classifieds), entering at ~$233M in 2015 and selling to EQT Group at ~$1.92bn in 2020. Apax Partners also returned roughly 3.4x on Baltic Classifieds Group (online classifieds; entry ~$337M in 2019 and ~$1.16bn IPO in 2021).

In Fintech, Goldman Sachs Asset Management entered Meilleurtaux (French loan & mortgage broker) at ~$146M and made about 6x when Silver Lake bought it at ~$885M in 2020. 

Why does this matter now?

The outlier 113x and 78x outcomes were priced in 2014 and 2015, when these categories were still unproven. The equivalent entry points today include AI-native marketplaces in hiring, property, professional services, and agent-to-agent ecosystems, where AI agents find and transact with each other via a mediated platform. Many are still far from generating the liquidity levels of a Vinted or an Idealista.

At EIV, we expect the marketplace format to continue to deliver outstanding returns over the next decade, both from AI-native newcomers and from rapidly adapting incumbents. If you are building in this space, or are an actual or potential marketplace investor, we'd love to hear from you.