Last week, I noticed that Grain.com had transferred from Tucows to GoDaddy, and the domain name is now registered using GoDaddy’s Whois privacy service. The previous owner of Grain.com was Digimedia, a company that owns a portfolio of exceptional domain name assets.
When I saw the domain transfer and registrant change in my DomainTools Domain Monitor alert email, I tweeted about the sale and guessed who might have acquired Grain.com:
https://t.co/3ydMsztz6t, which has been owned by Digimedia and registered at Tucows, transferred to GoDaddy under Whois privacy possibly indicating a sale. Perhaps coincidentally, a company called Grain (using https://t.co/GZrS0yZnIr) also uses GoDaddy + Whois privacy.
— Elliot Silver (@DInvesting) November 25, 2021
It looks like I was wrong. This morning, I noticed that Grain.com is now forwarding to Grain.CO. Grain is a startup that “enables users to record, transcribe, and highlight their zoom calls in real time.” According to Crunchbase, Grain has raised $4 million in funding. Given this important (and likely expensive) acquisition, I would not be surprised if Grain has raised additional funding that was not reported.
I reached out to Digimedia to see if the company would comment about the sale price of Grain.com. Based on previous Digimedia sales I uncovered, I am almost positive the company will not offer any comment about the sale price or terms. My guess is that the domain name was valued into the seven figures, and I would not be surprised if there was an equity stake involved. Given the private nature of both companies, I doubt we will ever know the price or terms.
Acquiring Grain.com was a smart move for Grain. Grain.com would be an upgrade for quite a few companies, and I think it is particularly helpful for the .CO registrant to acquire this asset to help reduce confusion that may have existed for direct navigation and email deliverability.
What?! You mean they didn’t buy grain.xyz!?