Letgo, the online used goods marketplace, secured $175 million in funding.
Billing itself as a “hyperlocal marketplace optimized specifically for mobile use,” letgo's app has geolocation-based search and instant chat, which the company says links buyers and sellers instantly. The site, which launched in 2015 and is also regarded as the would-be craigslist killer, has raised more than $3.25 million in funding and has a valuation approaching $1 billion.
According to TechCrunch, letgo’s latest funding round included participation from original investor Naspers as well as 2016 entrants Insight Venture Partners, Accel, the stealthy New York-based venture firm 14W, Eight Roads Ventures, Mangrove Capital Partners and FJ Labs.
“While letgo has caught on faster than any of us could have anticipated, our goal remains much bigger – to build the largest secondhand marketplace in the world,” cofounder Alec Oxenford said in a statement. “This new funding will bring us much closer to that vision. We are powering a fast-expanding secondhand economy that benefits not just buyers and sellers, but also the environment. Already letgo helps tens of millions of users globally think used before they think new.”
Just last month, Google named letgo one of 2016’s “Best Apps,” and it remains one of the top ranked shopping apps in the U.S. and other countries.
“Letgo is the most significant threat that incumbent secondhand marketplaces have faced,” Martin Scheepbouwer, CEO of Classifieds at Naspers, added. “Letgo’s early growth is unprecedented for this type of platform and it’s clearly tapped into an enormous consumer demand for a better way to buy and sell locally. In a short time, it’s become a massive marketplace used by tens of millions of buyers and sellers. And its growth has only been accelerating.”
