// STARTUP COMPARISON
99designs vs Habitissimo
99designs failed in 2021 due to Acquisition Gone Wrong. Habitissimo failed in 2020 due to Acquisition Gone Wrong. Both failed for the same reason — Acquisition Gone Wrong.
| METRIC | 🔥 99designs | 🔥 Habitissimo |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | Marketplace | Marketplace |
| Country | Australia | Spain |
| Founded | 2008 | 2009 |
| Died | 2021 | 2020 |
| Raised | $45M | €10M |
| Peak | $100M revenue | €15M revenue |
| Primary Cause | Acquisition Gone Wrong | Acquisition Gone Wrong |
// WHY EACH FAILED
🔥 99designs
Acquisition Gone Wrong
99designs, Australia's leading design contest marketplace, raised $45M and reached $100M in revenue. Vista (formerly Vistaprint) acquired 99designs in 2021. Post-acquisition, the independent product roadmap was absorbed into Vista's suite of small business tools. The design contest format that made 99designs distinctive was progressively deprioritized in favor of Vista's template-based offering.
// LESSON
When a specialist marketplace is acquired by a generalist SMB platform, the specialist feature becomes one tab in a dashboard. The distinctive competitive positioning that built the marketplace becomes a checkbox in the acquirer's feature list.
When a specialist marketplace is acquired by a generalist SMB platform, the specialist feature becomes one tab in a dashboard. The distinctive competitive positioning that built the marketplace becomes a checkbox in the acquirer's feature list.
🔥 Habitissimo
Acquisition Gone Wrong
Habitissimo was Spain and Latin America's leading home services marketplace, connecting homeowners with contractors. It was acquired by ANGI Homeservices (HomeAdvisor) in 2017. Post-acquisition, local product focus deteriorated, engineering teams were dispersed across ANGI's global structure, and Habitissimo's market position eroded as local competitors rebuilt trust with Spanish users.
// LESSON
Marketplace network effects are hyper-local. Trust cannot be managed remotely. Acquiring a marketplace and running it from another continent destroys the very thing that made it valuable.
Marketplace network effects are hyper-local. Trust cannot be managed remotely. Acquiring a marketplace and running it from another continent destroys the very thing that made it valuable.
// EXPLORE FURTHER