CollX raises $10M to grow its card collection marketplace

CollX, a company offering an online trading card marketplace, has raised $10 million in Series A funding. The round was co-led by Austin-based Brand Foundry Ventures and Philadelphia-based 114 Ventures, both of which were previous investors in the company.

Other investors such as Next Coast Ventures, FJ Labs, and Ben Franklin Technology Partners also participated in the round.

The startup also added a key partner, Kansas City Royals baseball player Bobby Witt Jr. — a card collector himself — who joined the round as an investor, advisor, and brand ambassador. To date, CollX has raised over $15 million across multiple rounds.

The collectible cards market in the U.S. is showing promising signs of expansion and will grow by several billion in the next few years, according to multiple reports. CollX wants to take advantage of that and grow its solutions for scanning and trading cards.

The company now has over 3 million users, up from 600,000 in 2023. It offers tools to scan your cards and upload your collection, look at collections from other users, and trade cards through its marketplace.

The company’s CEO Ted Mann said that the app has 400,000 monthly active users. The marketplace hosts 30,000 buyers and 20,000 sellers on the platform, with 20% growth month on month.

Since its seed round in 2023, the company has made a few changes to its platform and created new revenue streams. First, it refers users to Professional Sports Authenticator’s (PSA) card grading services, which evaluates a collectible card’s condition and gives it a score.

“These grading companies asses the card’s condition, including corners, edges, and centering and gives it a score. The graded cards with good scores often get high appreciation as compared to ungraded cards. So it’s a win for a user,” Mann said.

The company also partners with live shopping platforms such as Whatnot and Fanatics for card trading.

Plus, it redirects users to the trading card manufacturers like Topps to buy box sets. CollX takes cuts for all these transactions. The company facilitates transactions between users for a 10% commission.

“It has been tough to build a marketplace. But we hone into the data of knowing your collection, and also suggesting you other sellers and cards if you have stated your goals about collecting certain cards. So when you add a card to your cart from a user, we show you other cards from that collection that you might be interested in,” Mann said.

After its seed raise in 2023, CollX rolled out a pro subscription that costs $10 a month or $100 a year. With that, users get a $10 credit for the marketplace, adding unlimited items (instead of 500), print checklist, export collection, set bulk pricing, and a LinkedIn-styled who viewed my card feature.

It is 2025, so there is an AI feature in the app as well. Users can ask the chatbot, powered by OpenAI’s models, about building their collections, pricing their cards right, and if a particular card is worth grading.

The company still has a Card Dealer Pro offering that allows users or shops with very large collections to scan and digitally upload their collections rapidly.

Mann said that both the CollX Pro and Card Dealer Pro count toward the bulk of revenue for the company, but noted that revenue from marketplace transactions is growing and would overtake subscription revenue eventually.

There is competition for CollX in terms of high-end trading card platform Alt, card scanning app Ludex, and sports card marketplace ComC. Mann believes that his startup is different because it offers a wider range of cards and solutions for collectors.

Mann said that the startup is not yet profitable, but by the end of this year, it will make a decision about if it wants to choose the path to profitability or wants to accelerate user and marketplace growth.