Greetabl, a St. Louis startup that created an e-commerce platform for personalized gifts, has been sold.
The company has been acquired by Business Crossing, a private equity firm in mid-Missouri that’s led by Gary McKinney. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Greetabl, founded about a decade ago, is an e-commerce business designed to allow its customers to easily purchase and send gift boxes to others. It sells its gifts directly to consumers, but in recent years has placed an emphasis on serving business-to-business clients.
Founder and CEO Joe Fischer started the business with co-founder Zoë Scharf, who remains on Greetabl's board of managers.
He said the decision to sell the business stems from its growing focus on B2B sales and his desire to spend more time with his family on their 150-acre farm in Washington, Missouri.
“I didn’t even know my wife when I started Greetabl and now I’m married with three kids and live on a farm,” Fischer said. “My life has changed drastically — for the better.”
Fischer said he began looking into selling Greetabl last summer, and the deal with Business Crossing came about through an existing relationship he had with McKinney. With its shift to business-to-business sales, Fischer said, Greetabl has found success with large companies using its e-commerce platform for corporate gifting and with “relationship-driven professionals” such as real estate agents and financial advisers. Fischer said he believes Greetabl, which in 2021 landed on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing private companies, is poised for continued growth. However, he said the B2B sales strategy is likely better suited for a new owner to lead.
“It just wasn’t (a business model) I was personally as excited about,” he said.
Greetabl had two full-time employees at the time of its sale, Fischer said. He said Greetabl's new owner extended offers to both employees to remain with the company. Greetabl had raised about $2.4 million since its founding, with its investors including St. Louis-based Capital Innovators and Missouri Technology Corp., among others. It won a $50,000 equity-free grant in 2014 from local nonprofit Arch Grants.
Greetabl marks the latest in a string of companies to announce acquisitions since the start of 2023. It joins text messaging startup Textel, which was acquired by local software company Capacity; medical technology startup Pierian, which was bought to create a new precision health care company based in Boston; and construction technology startup Ryvit, which sold to Westminster, Colorado-based industrial technology company Trimble Inc. (NASDAQ: TRMB).
Fischer has stepped away from Greetabl with the sale, but plans to continue his entrepreneurial endeavors. He will take time to explore some other potential business ideas that are “things that have just been on my mind for a long time, but I haven’t let myself spend any time on” while running Greetabl, he said.
Fischer, who is a certified public accountant and formerly worked in finance in New York, also plans to launch a fractional CFO practice. He said that will allow him to work with other business owners, as his experience as an entrepreneur made him learn how much he enjoys talking through problems with other founders and CEOs.
“It’s one of my favorite things to do,” he said.
