Tim Schumacher and Ulrich Essmann invest in Apptopia.
Tim Schumacher and Ulrich Essmann, two of Sedo’s founders, are no strangers to building a marketplace.
The pair hope to put this background to good use by investing in Apptopia, which they describe as a “Sedo for Apps.” They led a bridge financing round that also includes Kima Ventures, Eric Kagan, Telegraph Hill Capital and Rothenberg Ventures.
Much like Sedo does for domain owners, Apptopia allows app publishers to list their apps for sale. Buyers get the user base, revenue and technology. This seems like something that would be appealing to domain investors who are used to buying domains based on traffic and revenue. (That said, apps take a bit more care and feeding than domains to keep up.)
App developers have already received over $5 million in payouts from selling their apps on Apptopia.
Tim Schumacher must go in JAIL, all people remember him for having screw the parking model giving sedo with all its premium domains to google
This is absolutely where the mobile app market is going and the parallels to domaining aren’t lost on Tim, no surprise there. More than 900K apps out there, many have some value but are much stronger as a rolled up portfolio where marketing costs and other bundling can reap benefits. One of the little-covered facets of the IOS7 launch — because so much was made about the design changes for phones — was that the code was changed to make rolling up apps under one owner easier. So Apple sees the great portfolio consolidation coming too. Apptopia is Boston-based and started as gangbusters, still has a good vibe but Tim’s shot in the arm will be a boost. Good on you, Tim!
It like the concept of apptopia and with backing from such market experts it will be a success for sure.