Five years ago, Andrew Parker of Spark Capital published a now well-known post highlighting the different startups attacking different parts or services of Craigslist entitled the Spawn of Craigslist. Then in December 2012, former Spark analyst David Haber updated the chart further expanding the list of companies to more than 80.
So we wanted to revisit that chart with some good ol’ data.
Flash forward to 2015 and the verticalization of web marketplaces has accelerated substantially. Funding activity to Haber’s original list of companies has skyrocketed. Collectively, the 82 companies on Haber’s list have raised $8.87B in funding and have notched 13 exits to date as well as the merger of Elance and ODesk. Four of the companies have gone public including Lending Club, Care.com, Chegg and Castlight Health for aggregate exit value of $8.4B.
Below is Haber’s version of the chart:
Interestingly, deal activity to the companies is trending down since 2012 – falling 66% YoY between 2012 and 2013. One reason that may partially explain the deals drop is the growth in smartphone usage. Uber and Lyft were two of the early mobile-first startups in the category but today a whole ecosystem of companies (not listed in Haber’s chart) provide mobile on-demand services from home cleaning to grocery delivery to dry cleaning (See: The ‘Uber for X’ Investment Report). In other words, the next set of Craiglist attackers are not doing it on the desktop first necessarily.
The chart below highlights the funding trend to Haber’s original list of marketplace businesses attacking Craigslist. 
Of course, several of the companies on Haber’s list have gone on to raise significantly more than others. Most notably of course is Uber, which has gone on to raise multiple $1.2B rounds and $1.6B in convertible debt from Goldman Sachs. Others who have gone on to raise over $100M include Rent the Runway, Lyft, Quora and 1stdibs.
Among investors, SV Angel has invested in the highest number of the companies (14) on the Craigslist unbundlers, followed by Union Square Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Founder Collective, which all tie for second. Perhaps not surprisingly, Spark Capital, where Parker works and Haber used to work, also has invested in a significant amount of the companies (9) including Stack Exchange, eToro and Work Market, all three of which raised big follow-on funding rounds in the last two months. Investors in 7 or more of the companies are below.
| VC Investor | Number of Companies |
|---|---|
| SV Angel | 14 |
| Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers | 11 |
| Union Square Ventures | 11 |
| Founder Collective | 11 |
| Andreessen Horowitz | 10 |
| Spark Capital | 9 |
| First Round Capital | 9 |
| Benchmark Capital | 7 |
| Index Ventures | 7 |
Track all the players attacking Craigslist All of the data in this research brief comes from the CB Insights Venture Capital Database. Sign up free below.
This report was created with data from CB Insights’ emerging technology insights platform, which offers clarity into emerging tech and new business strategies through tools like:
- Earnings Transcripts Search Engine & Analytics to get an information edge on competitors’ and incumbents’ strategies
- Patent Analytics to see where innovation is happening next
- Company Mosaic Scores to evaluate startup health, based on our National Science Foundation-backed algorithm
- Business Relationships to quickly see a company’s competitors, partners, and more
- Market Sizing Tools to visualize market growth and spot the next big opportunity