PHILADELPHIA, PA — CollX this week announced it has raised a $5.5 million seed round. The round was led by Brand Foundry Ventures, an Austin, Texas venture fund, with participation from Next Coast Ventures, FJ Labs, 114 Ventures, Ben Franklin Technology Partners, and Morrison Seger Venture Capital Partners.
CollX launched in January 2022 with an iOS and Android app leveraging visual search AI to allow collectors to quickly scan, ID and get the market value of sports trading cards by taking a photo of them. Since its launch, the app expanded to include trading card games like Pokémon and Magic, added a social layer to follow other users and see their collections, and created a “Deals” offer-negotiation framework to allow collectors to buy and sell with others on the platform. Currently, the CollX app has 600,000 registered users who have added 100 million cards to their collections. The app matches and tracks pricing against 20 million unique cards.
CollX also operates Card Dealer Pro, a software designed for card stores and dealers to rapidly inventory their cards using visual search AI. 500 high-volume dealers, including Mile High Cards, SMR Collectibles, and Sports Cards by Beau (aka The Million Cubs Project) license Card Dealer Pro’s software. Most customers leverage the software to inventory cards and list for sale on eBay, typically allowing them to 10x their volume.
Angel investors in CollX include Nat Turner, DJ Skee, David Adelman, Darren Lachtman, Brad Stadler, Ryan Schinman, Robert J. Moore, Rich Friedman, Mike Crossey, Chris McDemus, Jake Rosenberg, Keith McGowan, Adam Crouch, Adam Glasofer, Rania Nasis, David Kaplan, Ariel Boyman, Mike Cohen, Peter Mann, Peter Christodoulo, Ray Waddell, Mani Sundaram, and Juno Capital.
“We believe there is a massive opportunity in trading cards by giving collectors tools to help them value, transact and level up in the hobby,” said CollX co-founder and CEO Ted Mann. “85 million American adults own trading cards, but most have no idea what they’re worth. We launched CollX with a simple utility to scratch the what’s-it-worth itch. That’s become a gateway to helping folks digitize their collections, do millions of dollars in deals, learn how to grade cards, and much more. We’re just getting started.”
CollX intends to use the Seed funding to finalize the launch of its marketplace for buying and selling cards, as well as a premium tier of the app for power collectors. The company is based in Philadelphia and is led by co-founders Mann, CTO Kostas Nasis, and President Fred Barnes. Barnes leads the Card Dealer Pro side of the business. “By helping both collectors and professional dealers, we’re looking to grow all sides of the hobby,” said Barnes. “For decades there hasn’t been any software to help collectors keep track of their cards, or dealers to manage their business. In just the past year we’ve seen how much of a game-changer this technology can be in the trading card industry.”
“CollX has grown to become a force in the hobby in a very short period of time,” said Wesley Gottesman of Brand Foundry. “The secondary market for cards is big, but we see an opportunity for it to grow 2-3x. And CollX will be at the center of that, helping collectors level up in the hobby.”
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