01Global marketplace agency
AI-native service marketplaces built to scale.
The agency
Markko is a marketplace agency that designs, builds and grows service platforms where buyers, providers and AI agents can discover, decide and transact, with people in control of trust, money and exceptions.
02Selected marketplaces
02What changes
Turn marketplace potential into trusted transactions.
What every engagement moves towards
Every engagement moves a marketplace into a more valuable state. These are the states Markko builds towards, whether the platform is new, established or being rebuilt.
- 01
Validated model
A marketplace model that has been tested against real supply, demand and unit economics before the expensive build begins.
- 02
Transacting platform
Search, booking, requests, quotes and payment working end to end, so the platform earns from the first transaction.
- 03
Activated supply
Providers onboarded, verified and kept active, with the listings and availability data buyers need to commit.
- 04
Trusted operations
Disputes, exceptions, payouts and reviews handled by clear operator workflows rather than inboxes and spreadsheets.
- 05
Agent-ready infrastructure
Machine-readable listings, permissions and transaction rules that let AI agents take part without taking control.
03Marketplace complexity
The hard parts of a service marketplace are the human parts.
Why services are different
Products sit on shelves. Services depend on people, time, trust and money changing hands at the right moment. That is where most marketplaces leak value.
Where value leaks
- 01
Supply
Finding, onboarding and verifying providers, then keeping them active.
- 02
Demand
Search and matching that surfaces the right provider, not just any provider.
- 03
Trust
Identity, reviews, insurance and guarantees that make strangers commit.
- 04
Booking & quoting
Availability, requests and quotes that close instead of stalling.
- 05
Payments
Deposits, escrow, payouts and refunds that respect who owes what.
- 06
Leakage
Buyers and providers taking the second transaction off platform.
- 07
Operator exceptions
Cancellations, disputes and edge cases that land on a human desk.
04The agentic layer
Marketplaces where agents can act, and people stay in control.
Operating model
Agents do the work. People hold trust, money and exceptions.
What is changing
Buyers, providers and operators are starting to send software to do the work. Markko builds marketplaces that can receive it: listings machines can read, actions with limits, and a person on the other end when it matters.
What an agent is allowed to do
- 01
Search and shortlist
Reads structured listings, availability and pricing.
- 02
Request quotes
Sends a scoped brief to matching providers.
- 03
Hold availability
Reserves a slot inside a defined window.
- 04
Confirm within limits
Books and pays up to an operator-set threshold.
- 05
Escalate to a person
Hands over when trust, money or exceptions exceed policy.
Three kinds of agent, one set of rules
- 01
Buyer agents
Search, compare, request quotes and book on behalf of a customer or a business. They need clean structured supply, honest availability and clear rules for what they may commit to.
Needs structured supply
- 02
Provider agents
Respond to requests, quote against real capacity, manage calendars and chase completion. They give small providers the responsiveness of a large operator.
Needs real capacity
- 03
Operator agents
Match, monitor, flag and resolve. They handle the volume of routine operations so your team spends its time on the exceptions that need judgement.
Needs clear limits
The governed foundation
Agents act inside limits the operator sets.
AI is structural in a Markko marketplace, not a chat window bolted on. Every agent action runs through the same identity, permission and payment layer as a human one, and leaves the same trail.
- 01
Identity
Every buyer, provider and agent is a known principal with a verified owner.
- 02
Permissions
What each agent may read, request, hold or confirm is explicit and revocable.
- 03
Deterministic controls
Pricing, availability, eligibility and limits are enforced by code, not persuasion.
- 04
Payment boundaries
Spend thresholds, deposits and payouts sit behind rules the operator owns.
- 05
Audit trails
Every action, by a person or an agent, is recorded and reviewable.
- 06
Human escalation
Disputes, edge cases and high-value decisions route to a person by design.
05What Markko does
One team across the whole marketplace lifecycle.
Strategy, design, engineering and growth in one team, so the marketplace model, the product and the acquisition plan are built to fit each other.
See all servicesNo.
Capability
What it covers
- 01
Marketplace strategy
Model, pricing, take rate, liquidity plan and the sequence to reach it.
- 02
Marketplace UX
Search, listing, booking, quoting and provider flows designed around real behaviour.
- 03
Marketplace development
Bespoke or platform-based builds with payments, messaging, reviews and operations.
- 04
Modernisation
Rebuilding ageing marketplaces without losing supply, SEO equity or revenue.
- 05
Marketplace SEO & search
Category, location and listing architecture that earns demand at scale.
- 06
Advertising & acquisition
Paid, partnerships and referral loops tuned to both sides of the market.
- 07
Growth & operations
Supply activation, retention, leakage control and operator tooling.
- 08
Agentic implementation
Machine-readable supply, agent permissions and governed automation.
06Wider portfolio
Six service marketplaces, one delivery model.
Different categories, the same marketplace mechanics: supply, demand, trust, booking and payment, designed and built to hold together.
Explore all marketplace work01Family services marketplace
Kinurture
Strategy · UX · Build · Growth
View project02Sponsorship marketplace
A two-sided market for sponsors and the properties they back.
Marketplace UX · Build
View project03B2B vehicle marketplace
WorkVans
Buyers, dealers & fleet operators
View project04Family experiences marketplace
Parents booking kids' parties and experiences from local providers.
Marketplace design · Build
View project05Curated makers marketplace
DesignSnitch
Independent makers & design-led buyers
View project06Aesthetics services marketplace
Clinics and practitioners taking treatment bookings in one place.
Marketplace strategy · Build
View project
07Client perspective
Client perspective pending approval
08Marketplace experience
Marketplace experience, not generalist agency experience.
Markko brings marketplace strategy, product design, engineering, search and growth, and operations together in one team, so the model, the product and the growth plan are shaped by the same people.
5marketplace disciplines in one team
Strategy sets the model and supply plan. Product designs both sides of the transaction. Engineering builds the platform and integrations. Growth handles search, acquisition and conversion. Operations keeps supply, trust and payments working after launch.
- Strategy
- Product
- Engineering
- Growth
- Operations
09Starting points
Three defined ways to begin.
Each starts with a fixed scope and ends with a decision you can act on, whether or not Markko builds what follows.
Service Marketplace Blueprint
ForNew marketplaces and pre-build teams
A validated model, audience and supply plan, the transaction flow, and a build sequence with the platform choice made.
You leave with
- Model, pricing and take-rate logic
- Supply and demand acquisition plan
- Platform recommendation and roadmap
Marketplace Modernisation Assessment
ForLive marketplaces on ageing platforms
A clear view of what is holding growth back across product, search, operations and stack, and the safest route to replace it.
You leave with
- Product, SEO and operations review
- Migration risks and sequence
- Modernisation plan and estimate
Agent-Ready Marketplace Audit
ForMarketplaces preparing for agent traffic
How ready your supply, permissions and payment flows are for buyer, provider and operator agents, and what to change first.
You leave with
- Machine-readable supply review
- Identity, permission and payment gaps
- Governed automation roadmap
10Platform choice
The marketplace model chooses the stack.
Markko is not tied to one platform. We recommend the foundation that fits the transaction, the volume and the operating model, and say so plainly before anything is built.
No.FoundationWhen it fits
MarketStarter
Service-marketplace core for teams that need booking, quoting and payments on a proven base quickly.
Sharetribe
Hosted marketplace platform for validating a model and reaching first transactions with limited engineering.
Medusa
Composable commerce engine for marketplaces that blend products, services and custom checkout.
Mercur
Multi-vendor marketplace layer on Medusa for operator-managed supply at scale.
WooCommerce
WordPress-native marketplaces where content, SEO and a familiar CMS matter most.
Bespoke
Custom-built when the transaction, the data model or the agent layer is the product itself.
11Field notes
Notes from building marketplaces.
Read all field notesWhy most service marketplaces stall at the second transaction
Liquidity is not the first booking. It is the moment buyers and providers stop looking for each other elsewhere.
Leakage is a product problem before it is a policy problem
If going off-platform is easier than staying, no terms of service will hold. Design the reasons to stay.
What an agent needs from your listings that a person does not
Structured availability, explicit pricing rules and permissions are the difference between traffic and transactions.
12Start a conversation
Tell us about the marketplace you want to run.
What happens
A short call to understand the model, the stage you are at and whether one of the starting points fits. No deck, no pitch.
- Reach
- Global marketplace agency
- Focus
- Service marketplaces
- Delivery
- AI-native, agentic, people in control