MyMarkit

MyMarkit is a fintech transaction marketplace that aims to let consumers buy and sell goods without the value loss created by markups, fees and overhead in conventional retail and resale commerce. The company attaches value or currency directly to commodities using internal ledger systems, so that sellers retain the full sale amount rather than paying percentage-based commissions. Founder and CEO Nan Zhang frames the underlying concept as a "lossless transaction" and describes the resulting ledger-backed instrument as a digital currency backed directly by commodities.

The company's first product iteration, Vision Interchange, was launched in stealth mode and applied the model to the vision market (eyeglasses and sunglasses). According to the founder, within the second week of beta, users asked whether the same mechanism could be applied to designer handbags, prompting an expansion of scope; the model was subsequently duplicated in the sneaker market. MyMarkit is the general marketplace built on the same system, initially focused on resale luxury categories such as handbags and sneakers and millennial collectibles and brands, with stated plans to move into retail verticals using vendor systems.

Founding story

Founder and CEO Nan Zhang began developing self-sustaining, "lossless" frameworks during graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University, initially to reduce leakage in non-profit funding models, then applied the concept to consumer purchasing. Because her background was in ophthalmology and neuroscience, the first iteration targeted the vision market, motivated by the gap between the resale and retail prices of designer eyewear. Zhang was born in China, moved to New Orleans, Louisiana at age six, and holds a B.A. in Neuroscience and an M.A. in Biochemistry from Johns Hopkins University; she received the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship and was previously a cast member on the television show Gossip Girl.

Business model

MyMarkit operates as an API-based marketplace platform. Rather than taking a commission on transactions, it lets users keep 100% of the sale amount and charges a membership/transaction fee starting at $9.99 per month, with ledger-driven automation of overhead cited as enabling gross margins of roughly 70-80% at scale.

Subscription/transaction fee charged to users of the marketplace, starting at $9.99 monthly, in place of the sale-based fees and margins levied by competing marketplaces.

Traction

The company reported launching a beta platform for the vision market under budget by 4x and six months to a year earlier than planned. Beta users requested extension of the model to designer handbags, and the company built a further iteration for the sneaker market, described by the founder as a product-market fit.

Latest developments

The company completed the Expert DOJO accelerator program after earlier participation in Johns Hopkins Tech Ventures/FastForward and Capital Innovators, secured investment from Root and Shoot Ventures and East West Ventures with additional investors indicated for a seed round, advanced patent work with Sterne & Kessler including filings in Asia, and was preparing to launch the general MyMarkit marketplace for luxury goods and collectibles.