VarageSale Acquired by VerticalScope

Toronto’s VarageSale has been acquired by VerticalScope.

Once referred to as the hottest Canadian startup that no one has heard about, VarageSale burst onto the tech scene when it won Techvibes’ Startup of the Year award for 2014.

Co-founded in 2012 by Tami Zuckerman and Carl Mercier, VarageSale is a community-focused buy and sell website and mobile app designed to provide a safer, more local way to transact online.

VerticalScope is a digital media company specializing in enthusiast websites and interest-based online communities. Through targeted acquisitions like this one, VerticalScope has built a portfolio of more than 600 sites with over 100 million unique visitors per month.

VarageSale raised a $34 million Series B round in 2015 and investors included Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Real Ventures and Version One Ventures.

“The strength of VarageSale is in its highly engaged user base who buy, sell and connect through their online marketplace. Their team has built a unique product predicated on a customer-centric, safety-first approach,” said Rob Laidlaw, CEO of VerticalScope. “We look forward to welcoming VarageSale into our family of interest-based online communities and bringing their marketplace to more consumers and advertisers.”

Terms of the VerticalScope’s acquisition were not disclosed.

“As a leader in online communities, VerticalScope is a natural partner that will make VarageSale a continued success. This is an exciting step for the VarageSale community. We are excited that VerticalScope will continue to deliver on our mission to be the #1 choice to help our community members stretch their budgets,” shared Andrew Sider, CEO of VarageSale.

As part of the deal, some members of VarageSale’s engineering and customer support department have joined VerticalScope’s team at their headquarters in Toronto.