At the end of February of this year, James Iles of NamePros shared the news that the Gem.com domain name had been sold. Gem.com moved into the holding account of Escrow.com, likely indicating the domain name had been acquired with a payment plan. Citing an anonymous source, James wrote, “the sale of Gem.com has been agreed, and it is a seven-figure fee being paid in installments across several years.“
According to a press release that was published this morning, Gem.com was acquired by a company called ZenSourcer, and the company intends to rebrand as Gem. The company also announced it had raised “a $9M Series A funding round from Accel.”
Before reading the press release, I do not recall ever hearing of ZenSourcer. I suppose it was a unique brand name, but I don’t think there was anything special about it. Rebranding to Gem, while having the exact match Gem.com domain name is a major coup for the company.
Gem is an awesome brand name, and the company is not going to have to worry about confused customers who navigate to someone else’s domain name, nor will they need to be concerned about misdirected emails. Gem is a strong brand name, and Gem.com is an authoritative domain name.
Assuming the company was able to secure a reasonable payment plan, I give kudos to the team at Gem as well as Accel (including partner, Dan Levine). They locked down the ideal domain name in advance of their funding announcement and cash-infused growth.
Many people and companies balk at agreeing to pay a large sum of money via payment plan to acquire the perfect domain name. They don’t look at domain names in the same way they may look at office space, vehicles, or other important corporate assets. I don’t think payment plans at Escrow.com or domain name financing at a company like Domain Capital are tools that are used often enough. It makes sense to secure the perfect brand match domain name early on and not have to worry about locking up a deal later.
Congratulations to Gem and Accel on this great domain name acquisition and rebrand.
Just wow. What a gem of a domain name!
#offthemarketforever 😉
Kudos to Lumis for brokering this one: https://twitter.com/lumis_com/status/1101200747562184704
That’s a great one, I’ll bet it sold far too low.
Also, regarding installment plans, don’t forget Epik. Their interface for that is really great.
Ironically, I just wrote an article about domain name financing and payment options, although I am not familiar with what Epik offers: https://domaininvesting.com/domain-name-financing-options/
Just commented there before seeing this. Epik appears to have a stellar setup for this. Can’t wait to use it as the lessor or seller for such a deal myself.
“Gem is an awesome brand name, and the company is not going to have to worry about confused customers who navigate to someone else’s domain name, nor will they need to be concerned about misdirected emails. Gem is a strong brand name, and Gem.com is an authoritative domain name.”
It my view it is a pretty trick name to spell/type. How many will think it is jem.com?
Maybe a handful of people who are poor spellers?
I just asked my first grade daughter how the word is spelled and she said “gem.”