New E-Commerce Roll-Up Makes Automated Bids for Shopify Stores

In 2014, Keith Rabois co-founded OpenDoor Technologies Inc., a startup whose main product was an algorithm that would determine the value of homes based on data such as the ZIP code and the material of the countertops, then make cash offers to the owners, sight unseen. He’s now trying a similar model—right down to the name—with OpenStore, a startup that makes automated purchase offers to small e-commerce businesses.

Although flipping online storefronts may not be as familiar as the all-American activity of house-flipping, OpenStore is jumping on a trend that has been gaining momentum in the past few years. ...