Philly Trading Card Startup CollX Raises $10M Series A, Will Focus On Growing Community

While the company is largely a marketplace for buying and selling collectibles, it wants to help users connect with one another.

Philly-based trading card platform CollX raked in millions more dollars last month, once again receiving support from local investors.

CollX raised a $10 million Series A, with plans to use the funding for marketing and platform development efforts, cofounder and CEO Ted Mann told Technical.ly this week. Lead investors Brand Foundry Venture and 114 Ventures returned after contributing to the company’s $5.5 million seed round in 2023. Local investor Ben Franklin Technology Partners, along with Next Coast Ventures and FJ labs also contributed to both rounds.

The startup touts its local investor support, despite a lack of specialized, consumer VCs in the region.

“It’s largely pouring fuel on the fire,” he said. “It gives us more ability to accelerate user growth with paid marketing, to accelerate our engineering work and ongoing development.”

CollX did not disclose its valuation.

It’s been difficult as an early-stage consumer app to raise money from Philly-area investors because there aren’t a lot of institutional investors in the region focused on consumer companies, Mann said.

Fortunately, Haddonfield-based CollX, a former RealLIST startup, built a relationship with Philadelphia-based 114 Ventures which specializes in early-stage companies. The company clicked with the follow-turned-lead investor because one of the firm’s founders, Mike Petrakis, has experience building a marketplace platform, he said.

It helps that the consumer focus also gained interest from stakeholders in the sports world, like Howie Roseman, general manager of the Eagles and David Adelman, owner of the 76ers. Most recently, MLB player Bobby Witt Jr. contributed to the funding round.

“We’re very fortunate that Witt happens to be already very well known and synonymous with collecting,” Mann said.

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