Collx, a company that offers the online trading card market, has raised $10 million in Series A funding. The round was co-led by the Austin-based brand foundry venture and the Philadelphia-based 114 venture, both former investors.
Other investors including Next Coast Ventures, FJ Labs and Ben Franklin Technology Partners also participated in the round.
The startup has also added its key partner, Kansas City Royals baseball player Bobby Whitt Jr. (card collector himself). To date, Collx has raised over $15 million in multiple rounds.
The US collectable card market shows promising signs of expansion, with billions increasing over the next few years, according to multiple reports. Collx wants to use it to grow its scan and trading card solutions.
The company currently has over 3 million users, from 600,000 in 2023. It offers tools to scan cards to upload collections, view collections from other users, and trade cards through the market.
The company’s CEO Ted Mann said the app has 400,000 active users each month. Marketplace hosts 30,000 buyers and 20,000 sellers on the platform, with monthly growth rates of 20%.
Since the 2023 seed round, the company has made several changes to its platform and created new revenue streams. First, we call users professional sports certifier (PSA) card grading services. This is to evaluate the status of the collected cards and give them a score.
“These grading companies assess the condition of the card, such as corners, edges, centering, and more, and provide a score. Gradient cards with excellent scores often get high ratings compared to unrated cards. So it’s a victory for the user,” Mann said.
The company also partners with live shopping platforms such as Whatnot and Fanatics for card transactions.
Additionally, you can redirect users to trading card makers like Tops to purchase box sets. Collx reduces all these transactions. The company will promote transactions between users with a 10% fee.
“Building a market was tough. But we polish the data of knowing your collection and also suggest other sellers and cards when you state your goals about collecting a particular card. So, when you add a card from a user to your cart, you will see other cards from the collection that interests you,” Mann said.
After Seed Rays in 2023, Collx rolled out Pro subscriptions that cost $10 a month or $100 a year. This will allow users to get $10 credits in the market and add LinkedIn styles showing unlimited items (instead of 500), print checklists, export collections, set bulk prices, and my card features.
It’s 2025, so the app also has AI features. Users can ask chatbots with Openai models to build collections, get the cards priced correctly, and if a particular card is worth grading.
The company still has a card dealer professional product that allows users or shops to scan and digitally upload users with very large collections.
Mann said both Collx Pro and Card Dealer Pro would count towards a large portion of the company’s revenue, but said revenue from market transactions has increased and will ultimately overtake subscription revenue.
There is a Collx competition in terms of the high-end trading card platform ALT, the card scan app Ludex, and the sports card marketplace COMC. Mann thinks his startup is different as he offers collectors a wide range of cards and solutions.
Mann said the startups are not profitable yet, but by the end of the year, they will decide whether they want to choose a path to profitability or accelerate user and market growth.
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