Recently funded companies are often blogged about by domainers, and it always proves to be a popular subject since startups and domain investors often have a lot of interaction and crossover. There was even a conference that incorporated the two this year: The Domain Startup Summit.
We've used Crunchbase to identify seven recently funded startups or companies that do not own their matching .COM domain. For the purposes of this article, we have concentrated on companies that have recently received funding of $10 million or more.
Wave
In August 2016, we covered the $420,000 sale of Wave.com on the NamePros Blog. It was sold to a FinTech startup that allows its users to send money to East Africa. However, there's another recently funded financial company that probably should have acquired this domain.
Wave is a Toronto-based company offering a number of small business tools based around accounting and invoicing. After being founded in 2010, Wave has raised over $55 million in funding, with their latest funding round totalling over $10 million just a couple of days ago.
The company is currently using WaveApps.com to host their successful business, but I think they missed out by failing to secure the shorter Wave.com.
Eaze
Marijuana is big business now, with the US market valued at $6.7 billion in 2016, with expectations that it will rise to $21.8 billion by 2020. Eaze is a medical marijuana delivery company that allows its clients to order the drug to be delivered to their home.
The company was founded in 2014, using the domain name eazeup.com, but hasn't made the decision to upgrade to eaze.com, it seems. Eaze has amassed $24.5 million in funding, with their latest funding round bringing in $13 million this month.
Ofo
This Beijing-based company has just raised $130 million in funding to help grow their shared bicycle platform. I was surprised to see that Ofo is using ofo.so as its main domain. The .SO domain extension is the country code for Somalia, and an extension that is rarely used in China.
The domain name ofo.com is owned by Telepathy, a company founded by domain industry veteran Nat Cohen, which owns thousands of domains including a large portfolio of three-letter .COM domains.
Emulate
Emulate is creating living products to help develop a greater understanding of how diseases, chemicals and food can affect human health. It's a complicated but interesting technology that is truly revolutionary.
Despite having raised $57 million in funding, including a recent $17 million Series B round, the exact match domain - emulate.com - remains in the hands of a computer programmer from Florida. According to DomainGang, emulate.com was stolen in October 2015, but was returned to its rightful owner in January 2016.
Ladder
Ladder is a FinTech company that claims to give its clients better life insurance by providing a digital product with no sales offices and no middlemen. The California based company, founded in 2015, has just raised $14 million in funding, but their exact match .COM may be unobtainable.
Currently using LadderLife.com, Ladder may not be able to acquire Ladder.com since it's being used by a company called Ladder Man. However, if the offer is good enough, perhaps a sale could be completed.
Moov
After a successful crowdfunding campaign in which this company sold 20,000 units within 15 days, Moov seems to have gone from strength to strength, and have now secured over $15 million in funding, thanks in part to their recent $12 million Series B round.
Moov's website is hosted on Moov.cc, since they do not own the .COM version. Moov.com is owned by Atlantique Telecom, and looks to be one of the company's brands.
Kernel
Kernel is a company that's been in the news recently, in both domaining blogs and mainstream media. The company is aiming to produce hardware and software to augment human intelligence. Kernel has a $100 million investment from Braintree founder Bryan Johnson.
The company is using a .CO domain to house its website. Is that the best possible domain they could have used? Kernel.com is already in use by a digital media company. Is it possible that the .CO and .COM may be confused at some point? We've seen it before with Overstock's unsuccessful move to O.co a couple of years ago.
We've used Crunchbase to identify seven recently funded startups or companies that do not own their matching .COM domain. For the purposes of this article, we have concentrated on companies that have recently received funding of $10 million or more.
Wave
In August 2016, we covered the $420,000 sale of Wave.com on the NamePros Blog. It was sold to a FinTech startup that allows its users to send money to East Africa. However, there's another recently funded financial company that probably should have acquired this domain.
Wave is a Toronto-based company offering a number of small business tools based around accounting and invoicing. After being founded in 2010, Wave has raised over $55 million in funding, with their latest funding round totalling over $10 million just a couple of days ago.
The company is currently using WaveApps.com to host their successful business, but I think they missed out by failing to secure the shorter Wave.com.
Marijuana is big business now, with the US market valued at $6.7 billion in 2016, with expectations that it will rise to $21.8 billion by 2020. Eaze is a medical marijuana delivery company that allows its clients to order the drug to be delivered to their home.
The company was founded in 2014, using the domain name eazeup.com, but hasn't made the decision to upgrade to eaze.com, it seems. Eaze has amassed $24.5 million in funding, with their latest funding round bringing in $13 million this month.
Ofo
This Beijing-based company has just raised $130 million in funding to help grow their shared bicycle platform. I was surprised to see that Ofo is using ofo.so as its main domain. The .SO domain extension is the country code for Somalia, and an extension that is rarely used in China.
The domain name ofo.com is owned by Telepathy, a company founded by domain industry veteran Nat Cohen, which owns thousands of domains including a large portfolio of three-letter .COM domains.
Emulate
Emulate is creating living products to help develop a greater understanding of how diseases, chemicals and food can affect human health. It's a complicated but interesting technology that is truly revolutionary.
Despite having raised $57 million in funding, including a recent $17 million Series B round, the exact match domain - emulate.com - remains in the hands of a computer programmer from Florida. According to DomainGang, emulate.com was stolen in October 2015, but was returned to its rightful owner in January 2016.
Ladder
Ladder is a FinTech company that claims to give its clients better life insurance by providing a digital product with no sales offices and no middlemen. The California based company, founded in 2015, has just raised $14 million in funding, but their exact match .COM may be unobtainable.
Currently using LadderLife.com, Ladder may not be able to acquire Ladder.com since it's being used by a company called Ladder Man. However, if the offer is good enough, perhaps a sale could be completed.
Moov
After a successful crowdfunding campaign in which this company sold 20,000 units within 15 days, Moov seems to have gone from strength to strength, and have now secured over $15 million in funding, thanks in part to their recent $12 million Series B round.
Moov's website is hosted on Moov.cc, since they do not own the .COM version. Moov.com is owned by Atlantique Telecom, and looks to be one of the company's brands.
Kernel
Kernel is a company that's been in the news recently, in both domaining blogs and mainstream media. The company is aiming to produce hardware and software to augment human intelligence. Kernel has a $100 million investment from Braintree founder Bryan Johnson.
The company is using a .CO domain to house its website. Is that the best possible domain they could have used? Kernel.com is already in use by a digital media company. Is it possible that the .CO and .COM may be confused at some point? We've seen it before with Overstock's unsuccessful move to O.co a couple of years ago.
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