CoFoundersLab Acquires Entrepreneur-Focused Networking Service Bizpora

CoFoundersLab, a sort of “Match.com for entrepreneurs” who are seeking their soon-to-be better halves, has made another smallish acquisition to help expand its service’s offerings. The company has bought Bizpora, a startup that was helping travelers better network with others in their field ahead of upcoming trips, as well as keep an eye on interesting people who were planning to visit users’ own hometowns, too.

The London-based startup, founded by longtime friends and colleagues Fred Caballero (CEO), Facundo Villaveiran, and Pierre Lacave, was a graduate of the U.K.’s Ignite 100 accelerator. Founded in early 2012, Bizpora (previously Startup Stay), wasn’t just about helping people network, but had also tried to offer a sort of “Couchsurfing” alternative by connecting members who wanted to crash at each other’s places, instead of a hotel. The company had seen some minor coverage on sites like CNN, Good, VentureBeat and elsewhere because of this aspect.

However, Bizpora never really took off. Its web experience is still very basic, and it had only a small amount of funding from Start-Up Chile, according to CrunchBase. The company claims to have helped “hundreds” of entrepreneurs from 130 countries connect with each other to date. That’s not a lot, but apparently, its overall user base was 10,000 — which made it attractive to CoFoundersLab, it seems.

The company was also interested in Bizpora’s international presence, noting that it could help them with its international match-up events.

Caballero reached out to CoFoundersLab about a partnership around two years in to Bizpora’s operations, but those discussions changed as the companies realized they shared the same overall goals. CoFoundersLab has now agreed to acquire the service for an undisclosed (but likely small) sum. Bizpora’s co-founders, however, won’t be joining as a part of the deal.

CoFoundersLab competes with a number of other organizations, including FounderDating, and various regional efforts, ranging from Meetup groups to local organizations, like SVForum or Hackers and Founders, for example. Today, the company, which has previously acquired other competitors in the space, including West Coast-based TechCofounder.com as well as the East Coast-based FounderMatchup.com, says it had over 30,000 members ahead of the Bizpora deal.