// startup autopsy

Auctionata

Berlin online luxury art auction platform raised €100M and went bankrupt amid shill bidding scandal

fraudBankruptcy

Fatal mistake: Fraud

Founded	2012
Closed	2017
Country	Germany
Sector	Marketplace

50%

10%

Key Events Timeline

2012

FOUNDING

2012-01

FOUNDING

Auctionata founded

2014-06

FRAUD EXPOSURE

Fraud allegations surface

2015

FUNDING

2016

CRISIS

2017

SHUTDOWN

2017-06

SHUTDOWN

Bankruptcy: Auctionata ceases operations

// full analysis

Analyst plan

Documented cause

Auctionata built a live-streamed online luxury auction platform for art, watches, and collectibles, raising €100M and processing millions in transactions. It was celebrated as a digitization of the dusty auctio...

n world. But in 2016-2017, investigations revealed that Auctionata employees had been placing fake bids to drive up auction prices — a practice called shill bidding. Internal compliance failures and m

Verified lesson

“Auction marketplaces require structural independence between the auction operator and the bidding participants. When the...”

Unlock full lesson →

€400M

Peak valuation

HypeCycle · MoatType · ResearchTags

Auctionata raised €100M before fraud ended it. See the documented cause, verified lesson and all failure signals.

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