A card collecting management software startup has received a new round of funding to accelerate the development of its platform.
Noted venture capitalist Peter Thiel is behind the effort to boost Cardbase, a website and app that enables users to track and manage their sports card collections. Also participating in the round is Investacard, backed by millionaire investor and entrepreneur Marcus Lemonis, and Lucas Mast. The amount of the investment wasn’t disclosed.
Founded last year, Cardbase is headquartered in Mountain View, CA, and is available on the web, iOS, and Android. The platform provides users with real-time alerts, valuations, and other relevant key metrics for each card they own, similar to an interface of an online stock portfolio.
“We are happy to have such great investors on board who believe in the market and our vision,” stated Alex Ivanov, CEO of Cardbase. “We have seen amazing results and received a great response from our current users so far, raising this round will help us accelerate our growth and expand to new service offerings. With more and more people getting back to their normal life post COVID, we are here to help them make the process of researching, managing, and selling cards easier.”
Cardbase currently has a database of more than 11 million cards throughout 13 different sport and non-sport categories including baseball, basketball, football, racing, soccer and Pokemon.
That database means that instead of adding cards manually, they can add via search. The site automatically calculates approximate values based on grade. Overall values and profit/loss are auto-calculated and collectors can list cards from their portfolio directly on eBay from their account.
“People have always collected things, from coins and stamps to sneakers and sports cards,” Thiel noted. “But people have not always had good tools to track their collections. Cardbase brings an obsession with software solutions to obsessive collectors.”
“After 18 months of market research, we decided that Cardbase was building an amazing platform for collectors and investors to manage their portfolio and stay on top of the market,” remarked Edward Siegel, CEO of Investacard, which offers grading and consignment services. “The platform is also an opportunity for us to fuel our brand new fintech product: Sports Card Advance. With real-time data from Cardbase, it is going to provide our customers the opportunity to make instant decisions and get funded immediately.”
