Three is the magic number for TradeOut.com.
The leading online business
surplus e-commerce site won $22 million in third-round financing from three
companies — Benchmark Capital, eBay and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (MWD).
eBay’s (EBAY)
president and chief executive officer Meg Whitman and Bill Gurley and David
Beirne from Benchmark Capital joined TradeOut.com’s board.
The team hopes that eBay’s success will translate to TradeOut.com’s
business model, which is similar. TradeOut.com makes the current mode of
conducting business via phone and fax almost obsolete as buyers and sellers
make transactions using true market pricing.
Since its launch in June, customers have posted over $500 million worth of
assets on the site. The destination has items in more than 100 different
categories and has closed sales in a diversity of markets, including fiber
optic cable and home accessories. Businesses search for surplus by
geographic location and product category for easy navigation.
“The easiest way Benchmark can sum up its confidence in TradeOut.com is by
merely stating the facts: TradeOut.com a business model that addresses the
inefficiencies of an enormous market — one that is projected to to grow
from $115 billion to $1.5 trillion by 2004,” said Beirne.
“With a critical first-mover advantage and a superstar team behind it,
TradeOut.com has the opportunity to lead business-to-business auctions like
eBay did with the person-to-person market.”