5 Online Marketplace Success Stories [2025]
Imagine a platform where buyers and sellers converge seamlesslyβan online marketplace. At its core, an online marketplace is a digital venue where various vendors can list their products or services, allowing consumers to compare, choose, and purchase in a unified space.
Creating your own online marketplace involves designing the platform, attracting sellers, and providing efficient payment and delivery systems. You don't need to stock inventory; instead, you focus on ensuring a smooth user experience and marketing the platform for growth.
Online marketplaces are scalable and cater to diverse niches, from handcrafted goods to professional services. With a robust platform, consistent traffic, and diligent vendor support, you can build a thriving business that connects buyers and sellers worldwide. If you're keen to delve into the ecommerce world without managing physical products, this business idea could be your gateway.
In this list, you'll find real-world online marketplace success stories and very profitable examples of starting a online marketplace that makes money.
1. Solar Staff ($6M/year)
solar-staff //s3.amazonaws.com/www.starterstory.com/story_images/images/000/021/326/original/open-uri20221009-25-vx9a2y?1665301493 We used business networking and personal connections to attract and retain customers, along with themed conferences and context advertising. Our promotional budget accounts for 20-25% of our revenues.
How much money it makes: $6M/year
How much did it cost to start: $1.5M
How many people on the team: 77
Solar Staff is a profitable fintech solution that helps businesses work with cross-border contractors, making interaction with freelancers 5 times faster and optimizing business productivity, with a YOY growth of 92% and plans to expand into the UK, India, Mexico, and Brazil.
2. Virtudesk ($6M/year)
Pavel Stepanov, the Founder and CEO of Virtudesk, came up with the idea for his business after experiencing the dramatic results of hiring a virtual assistant for his own real estate business. He realized the power of delegating tasks and saw that other agents and entrepreneurs faced the same time constraints. With connections in the Philippines, he was able to start sourcing virtual assistants, and within two weeks of launching, he had already gained paying clients.
How much money it makes: $6M/year
How much did it cost to start: $2K
How many people on the team: 367
Virtudesk provides virtual assistant services to entrepreneurs and business owners, helping them to scale and automate their businesses with highly-trained virtual assistants based in the Philippines, resulting in over $500,000 in monthly revenue and experiencing greater growth in 2020 than in previous years.
3. Sharetribe ($2.4M/year)
Juho Makkonen, the CEO and co-founder of Sharetribe, came up with the idea for their online marketplace software while working on a research project at a Finnish university. After receiving multiple requests from non-technical founders to use their technology for their own ideas, they realized there was a market for a solution that allowed non-technical founders to build their own marketplace websites without coding skills. Today, Sharetribe powers over 1000 marketplaces in 70+ countries, with some customers raising millions in venture capital.
How much money it makes: $2.4M/year
How much did it cost to start: $100K
How many people on the team: 24
Sharetribe is a SaaS product that makes it easy for non-technical founders to create their online marketplace without coding skills; with more than 1000 marketplaces in 70+ countries powered by Sharetribe software, it began with an idea of Juho Makkonen and a co-founder, spinning out of their first marketplace research project.
4. Riders Share ($1.8M/year)
Guillermo Cornejo, leveraging his background as a data analyst in the auto industry, founded Riders Share after crashing his motorcycle and discovering rentals cost a staggering $200/day. His platform now boasts 22,000 listed motorcycles and has raised $3.5 million in venture capital with over 120,000 registered users.
How much money it makes: $1.8M/year
How much did it cost to start: $1M
How many people on the team: 6
Riders Share, an online marketplace for motorcycle rentals, has generated over $3.5 million in venture capital since February 2018 with over 120,000 registered users and a margin of around 45%, proving it's possible to create successful businesses in niche markets.
5. AVTOPRO ($540K/year)
In a communal apartment in Odessa, Evgeny Alyanchikov and friends turned their classic web studio into a major marketplace, Avto.pro. By 2021, over 5,000 stores in Ukraine sold automotive products worth $105 million through their platform.
How much money it makes: $540K/year
How much did it cost to start: $35K
How many people on the team: 50
Avto.pro is a leading Ukrainian marketplace for auto products that sold goods worth $105 million in 2021, with the potential to become a new Unicorn, by providing unique solutions that digitize the market, optimize logistics and trade chains, rebuilding relations between car owners and service stations, and introduce simplicity and transparency to the process for the client.
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
