LetGo, the app-based marketplace for people to sell each other second-hand goods, has nabbed a great deal of its own. Today, the startup announced that it has picked up an extra $500 million in funding from Naspers, the South African e-commerce and media giant, which it plans to use to double down on growth, both in its core second-hand goods sales as well as in newer areas such as the housing listings that it launched last month.
The company is not disclosing valuation, although a source close to the business confirmed that it has definitely grown compared to its last funding round, when it raised about $100 million at around a $1 billion valuation. That means this round above $1.5 billion pre-money.
LetGo said that $150 million of the total was transferred earlier this summer. Naspers had been a previous investor, and other backers of the company include Accel, Insight Venture Partners, New Enterprise Associates, 14W, Eight Roads Ventures, Mangrove Capital Partners and FJ Labs.
LetGo competes with the likes of eBay, Craigslist, OfferUp (which has also broken through the $1 billion valuation barrier) and Facebook, among many others in the very crowded world of second-hand, locally-focused marketplaces.
Within that, however, it’s carved out a strong place for itself: LetGo says that its app has passed 100 million downloads and 400 million listings in total, up 65 percent since the start of this year, with some 13 million messages sent daily in connection with goods on the site, and 6 billion sent since first opening for business three years ago. (The company does not break out any financials, but we are still digging on this and will update if/when we learn more.)
Part of its growth also has been due to some significant consolidation in the space: in 2016 it merged with rival Wallapop in a bid for more scale.
“We are extraordinarily fortunate to have investors who believe so strongly in our vision and team,” said LetGo cofounder Alec Oxenford in a statement. “We are fueling unprecedented growth in the secondhand economy through meaningful innovation. Our app makes it simple for tens of millions of buyers and sellers to connect in their own neighborhoods so they can put more money in their pockets, declutter their lives and put their space to better use.”
Naspers is making its investment through its OLX e-commerce arm, and while LetGo’s business is up to now been primarily in the US and Spain (from its Wallapop heritage), it will be interesting to see if the startup plans to take the service more global with this funding, in keeping with its big investor’s larger footprint.
“letgo has established itself as one of the most promising startups in the world by injecting excitement, new technology and fresh thinking into a space that’s lacked all of the above for decades in the U.S.,” said Martin Scheepbouwer, CEO of OLX Group, in a statement. Naspers has in the past also invested in Tencent and Flipkart.
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