Torstar backed VerticalScope acquires VarageSale

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By Ted Liu

VerticalScope Inc., a company majority owned by Torstar Corporation (TSX: TS.B), has acquired Toronto based VarageSale, the community-focused buy and sell website and mobile app. The deal closed early this week. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Some members of VarageSale’s engineering and customer support department have joined VerticalScope’s team at their headquarters in Toronto.

Co-founded in 2012 in Montreal by Tami Zuckerman and Carl Mercier, VarageSale had raised over $34 million from investors including Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, iNovia Capital, Real Ventures, and Version One Ventures.

VerticalScope is a digital media company specializing in enthusiast websites and interest-based online communities. Torstar owns 56.4% of VerticalScope.

The deal complements VerticalScope’s 600-plus online communities that reach over 100-million unique monthly visitors with a significant number of buy and sell transactions each month.

“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.”

“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.

photo credit: VarageSale