Velo.com Acquired by Reynolds American

Last week, I noticed that the Velo.com domain name had been acquired via Marksmen, a brand protection company that offers domain name acquisition services:

If I was going to take a guess about who acquired Velo.com, I would have guessed it was Velo Payments that acquired Velo.com. The startup, which was founded in 2017, uses VeloPayments.com for its website, and it has received $12 million in funding, according to Crunchbase. My guess would have been incorrect.

Earlier this morning, Jamie Zoch noticed the domain name changed registrants again. Velo.com is now registered to Reynolds American, Inc:

As Jamie pointed out in his tweet, the tobacco company has a velo trademark related to a smokeless tobacco product.

Velo.com is an exceptional domain name, and it was a smart move for Reynolds American to buy it. I couldn’t even speculate about the purchase price, but I would imagine it was an expensive acquisition.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

10 COMMENTS

      • I have pretty eclectic interests and a very broad sense of things. Cycling is a very narrow scope. Sure, it may be good for cycling, but I’m pretty sure that would only be for those who are hardcore about it, as in a small subset of those who are into cycling. Like yourself for instance. I’ll be the vast majority of those who enjoy cycling not only have little to no awareness of the term “velo,” but don’t even usually use the word “cycling” either.

        So I look into my heart of hearts with great honest introspection, and I ask myself, do I actually like this name and term, even for any kind of branding? And even regardless of whether companies already use it? And the answer is, I don’t like it. In fact I kind of even hate it to a degree. I’ve also never even heard of any company using that branding for anything, and would never use it myself. I would take the domain this time, however, since I know some will like it.

  1. When Marksmen contacts you, and they have contacted me on 7 occasions since 2001, you should know you’re dealing with IP professionals and serious buyers (often Fortune 50 companies). All of my transactions with Marksmen have gone smoothly, albeit with the usual negotiations. One negotiation lasted 2 months, and it was intense, before I was able to arrive at the desired price. The buyer: one of the largest 10 companies in the world. Sale comprised domain names, trademarks, patent, trade-name…

    BTW – VELO.COM = stellar name

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