Spanish food marketplace with 15K+ users, nearly 5K products, and €185K+ annual revenue

The business operates as a multi-vendor marketplace connecting consumers directly with independent Spanish food producers, specialist retailers and local food businesses. Sellers are independently onboarded onto the marketplace and it does not purchase or hold their inventory. Customers can purchase products from multiple sellers in a single order and complete just one checkout and payment through the business. The business manages the customer-facing marketplace experience, collects the full customer payment and subsequently settles the corresponding amounts with each seller. Approximately 80–85% of seller settlements are already automated through Paycomet and processed after a one-week holding period, with no human intervention. The remaining sellers currently prefer manual bank transfers. Logistics are also largely centralised. Approximately 90% of sellers use shipping arranged through its own transport-agency account rather than contracting shipping independently. This allows the business to aggregate shipment volume across many sellers, obtain more competitive transport rates and potentially improve logistics economics as marketplace volume grows. It currently earns approximately a 7% commission on completed marketplace sales, with no subscription or listing fees for sellers. The commission has intentionally been kept low during the growth stage to encourage seller adoption, catalogue expansion and competitive consumer pricing. The business has been designed to operate with a very lean structure. It currently has no employees and is managed by a single founder dedicating approximately 10–15 hours per week, supported by automation across payments, seller settlements, catalogue onboarding and other marketplace processes. These processes are transferable to a buyer or can be absorbed by an existing team.

The business uses a combination of specialised marketplace technology and AI-driven automation to maintain a very lean operating structure. The core marketplace infrastructure is provided by Ingeniomarket and integrates the main e-commerce and multi-vendor functionality required to operate. Paycomet is used for payment processing and automated seller settlements, while logistics are largely coordinated through its central transport-agency account. We are also introducing AI into seller onboarding. Using Descript and AI-assisted processing, a local producer or food shop can simply record a video of its store display or product range, briefly showing each product and stating its name, weight and price. The video can then be converted into individual product images and structured data for CSV/database import, with AI assisting in the generation of product titles, descriptions and other catalogue information. This workflow can potentially transform a traditional physical shop with little or no e-commerce infrastructure into a seller profile containing 100+ products within minutes, with minimal human work. This is particularly valuable because many of its target sellers are traditional local businesses with extensive product ranges but limited digital resources. The business is also exploring ElevenLabs AI voice agents as a future seller-acquisition channel. The objective is to enable AI-assisted outbound calls to relevant local food businesses and producers, explain the marketplace proposition, qualify their interest and potentially initiate the onboarding process. This is currently an R&D / testing initiative rather than a fully deployed acquisition channel. Together, these technologies support a broader strategy of automating both sides of marketplace expansion: AI-assisted seller acquisition followed by AI-assisted catalogue creation and onboarding.

The business has several clear growth levers that have not yet been fully exploited due to the founder operating the business part-time (approximately 10–15 hours per week) and with no employees. One of the most significant opportunities is seller acquisition. Historically, only around 10% of the founder’s time has been dedicated to actively recruiting new producers. A buyer with a dedicated sales resource could significantly accelerate seller and catalogue growth, particularly as it is developing AI-assisted processes that can dramatically reduce the time required to onboard traditional local businesses. There is also significant potential to optimise monetisation. The business currently charges sellers approximately 7% commission, intentionally kept low to encourage adoption, catalogue expansion and competitive pricing. As marketplace volume and seller value increase, a buyer could evaluate gradually increasing the take rate or introducing additional seller services and monetisation options. On the demand side, opportunities include scaling existing paid acquisition, expanding SEO and content around thousands of indexed product pages, improving conversion and customer retention through CRM and behavioural data, and developing social media, which has received relatively limited attention to date. Finally, the model can potentially be expanded geographically. Its existing infrastructure, seller network and catalogue provide a base from which a buyer could test additional European markets for Spanish food and gourmet products.

The business has been operated by a single founder on a part-time basis, averaging only 10–15 hours per week. I am selling because I am shifting my focus to other investments and projects and cannot dedicate the time required to fully capture its growth potential.