TBAuctions acquired by Castik Capital

Dutch online auction company TBAuctions will be acquired by Castik Capital. Due to the acquisition, TBAuctions can accelerate its European expansion. The closing of the acquisition is expected at the end of this year.

TBAuctions is an online auction platform and marketplace for second hand goods. It was founded in 2018, after a merger of Troostwijk Auctions (that handled business-to-business auctions) and BVA Auctions (that handles business-to-consumer auctions). With a turnover of 435 million euros, more than 13.000 auctions per year and over 10 million monthly website visitors, TBAuctions is one of the biggest online auction houses in Europe.

‘Platform provides scalability’

Since the merger, the company has invested heavily in creating a scalable online platform called ATLAS. This enables the company to seamlessly scale and integrate future acquisitions across Europe.

‘We can become one of the leading European online auction platforms.’

Now, TBAuctions is acquired by Castik Capital, that manages private equity funds. “We see that other auction houses can only facilitate their growth and the transition from physical auctions to online auctions by making significant investments in their IT”, said Herberth Samsom, CEO of TBAuctions. “Together with the support of Castik Capital, we can become one of the leading European online auction platforms.”

Active in 8 countries

The auction company is already active in 8 European countries, and its growth ambition has led to an acceleration of additional acquisitions. Most recently, it acquired Vavato, one of the largest online auction houses in the Belgian business-to-business and business-to-consumer markets. Just like Troostwijk Autctions and BVA Auctions, Vavato will keep operating within the holding under its own brand name. Acquired companies are integrated into the IT-backbone, ATLAS. This grants them scalability, efficiency, as well as marketing and back office support.

‘We’re ready to accelerate our growth.’

“If you look at the digitization of ecommerce in general, it is noticeable that the world of ‘second-hand’ is lagging behind in terms of digitization. This grants us unique opportunities in the market. We are now ready to accelerate our growth, together with our new partner Castik Capital, as they are known for investing heavily in both organic and inorganic growth, which fits perfectly with our ambitions and objectives.”

Fragmented market

According to research by Castik Capital, the European online auction market is still very fragmented and mostly consists of local players with a strong regional focus. Most have limited international scalability. This is why TBAucctions wants to use its ATLAS-platform to take over the European auction market and become the biggest auction house in Europe. “After that, we’ll see where our journey leads to.”