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CFO & Strategy

Finance for Marketplace and GMV Businesses

Written by Harry Prabandham

Curated by Rubric Financial

Last updated

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GMV and Take Rate Fundamentals

  • Gross Merchandise Value is the total dollar value transacted on the platform before any deductions, and it is a scale metric, not revenue.
  • Take rate is your revenue divided by GMV, and it captures the share of each transaction the platform actually keeps.
  • Blended take rate hides mix, so decompose it into commission, payment fees, and value-added services to see what is really monetizing.
  • Guard against take rate expansion that outpaces the value you deliver, because sellers will route transactions off-platform to avoid it.

About the author

Harry Prabandham

Founder & CEO

Founder and CEO of StartupCFO. MBA from Wharton, MS in Computer Science, and decades of experience building and advising venture-backed startups.

More articles by Harry

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