Crossrider, a platform that lets developers make extensions that can work across different web browsers like Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari and Firefox, has been sold for $37 million to Market.com, according to reports. Israeli paper Globes first noted news of the sale; Haaretz subsequently reported the buyer. We’ve reached out to the company for comment.
Update: CEO Koby Menachemi has been in touch to confirm the deal but also to clarify that the sale was to Market.com. The earlier report from Haaretz said the buyer was Markets.com, a trading platform. Market.com focuses on e-commere, and belongs to the same parent company. The service will continue to live as it has done.
Crossrider was founded 20 months ago and only came out of beta earlier this year with some $2 million in backing. But it’s clearly touched on a hot point — extensions for web browsers, which people use to customize how they interact with the web and increase the functionality of their browsers.
In November, Crossrider said it passed the 200 million mark for developers users on its platform; today that number is over 217 million. That speaks to not only the huge interest in developing browser extensions but the opportunity for those companies that offer developers a way to make these and avoid dealing with issues of fragmentation — not unlike attraction of platforms that let developers make and deploy apps across different mobile platforms.
While it’s not directly clear why a financial trading site would be interested in acquiring a cross-platform extensions developer, it may be a case of an aqui-hire for developer talent, or perhaps for other parts of Markets.com’s business — it is owned by entrepreneur Teddy Sagi’s Safecap Investments.
The company’s platform can be used to develop a number of powerful services, including arbitrage for e-commerce services. According to Haaretz, one of Crossrider’s other products was a browser extension that “opens a window when a user looks at a particular product on Amazon.com and offers it at a lower price at another website. If a sale results, CrossRider shares in the revenue.”
Past backers of Crossrider included Oren Zeev, a founding partner at Orens Capital and a former General Partner at Apax Partners. With the company taking very little in funding before the sale, co-founders CEO Koby Menachemi and CTO Shmueli Ahdut owned more than half of Crossrider and will make more than $9 million each from the sale, says Haaretz.