Seattle’s The Riveter has acquired Allobee in a deal that founder Brooke Markevicius says will keep the Durham startup's mission going – to help women find flexible work.
Brooke Markevicius hadn’t initially intended to sell her five-person company, which built a platform for moms looking for freelance projects. It was 2022 and she was fundraising. Securities filings show Allobee had embarked on a $3 million round, closing on $101,000 of that sum in May. But the market tightened. Investors started to pull back. And it became clear that Allobee wouldn’t be able to close the deal.
“So we started to look at alternative options of what we could still do,” Markevicius said. “I started reaching out to my network.”
That network included Amy Nelson, founder of The Riveter, initially a network of community and coworking spaces that launched in Seattle in 2017.
While Markevicius was in Seattle years ago, she had watched Nelson start The Riveter from scratch, having been one of its original members. It was one of Allobee’s early inspirations, she said. Nelson, like Markevicius, is a mom. And their missions aligned – so much so that they stayed in touch when Markevicius moved her company to Durham.
“I really admired that even during the pandemic when they had to shut down their coworking space and pivot the company, she kept it alive,” Markevicius said. It took resiliency – the kind of resiliency she was looking for.
Pre-pandemic, The Riveter had raised about $20 million to launch a national network of coworking spaces targeting women. Post-pandemic, it was forced to make a shift, focusing on its online community. Last year, it announced plans to partner with high-end hotels to give its members access to underutilized lobbies and conference rooms under a new “Riveter Spaces” initiative. It launched Riveter Build, a business-building webinar series.
Markevicius was looking for a company with that kind of gumption, one that could support Allobee’s mission of getting women paid for flexible work. So she sent an email. Discussions ensued and the deal closed.
Markevicius declined to share financial terms, but said she was pleased with the deal.
“It was the best scenario all around for us,” she said. “I think whenever you’re in an environment of fundraising being wild … a rough environment in general, you look for what can be the best step for the scenario that you want. I really just wanted to continue our mission, do as well by our investors as I could.”
Markevicius will stay on in Durham, taking the new role of chief product officer. Allobee will be merged into The Riveter’s product, RiveterWork. And the mission will expand under The Riveter, Markevicius said.
Here's a look at other M&A activity in 2023 so far:
