We’ve all seen the headline figures slapped onto those big internet business deals. Remember when Facebook acquired Instagram for a hefty $1 billion? Or when the Draw Something app sold for $250 million, just a matter of weeks after it was launched? Of course these fade dramatically when compared to Facebook itself when it was floated on the market at an eye-watering $104 billion. But even if most successful tech business deals don’t make their sellers quite as much money as these famous examples, they still can be worth significant amounts of money. Here are some fascinating cases of entrepreneurs who’ve made big money online.
Auctomatic
Oxford graduates Kulveer and HarjeetTaggar sold their company ‘Auctomatic’ for £2.5 million just a matter of months after its launch. They set up their first company with the support of Oxford’s Business School: (Buy Or Sell Online) was an internet auction site that received wide plaudits and gave them the financial backing to move to Silicon Valley. Auctomatic was their next step, a service which helped businesses to manage their sales on sites like eBay. The two were approached by a buyer before they found themselves part of a three-way bidding war, eventually leading to the sale of Auctomatic to Live Current Media.
Summly
If you think university graduates are ahead of the game in making multi-million pound business deals, then wait until you hear about Nick D’Aloisio. He developed ‘Summly’, an app which summarises news stories to fit them onto an iPhone screen, while revising for his mock GCSEs aged 15 at his home in London. Barely two years later he was approached by Yahoo! reportedly receiving almost $30 million for the web giant to incorporate his work in their mobile products.
GroupMe
Mobile messaging app GroupMe was launched in May 2010 by founders Jared Hecht and Steve Martocci after they raised over $10 million in venture capital. In just over a year the app had grown so far that it was being used to deliver over 100 million messages per month. Skype acquired the one-year old start-up for about $80 million, before it was itself acquired by Microsoft.
High Stakes
You may be surprised by just how much your business could be worth, and with the right support from transaction specialists like Axis Partnership you may be on your way to joining the ranks of those who have made it big.