Cashify Raises $15 Mn From Olympus Capital Asia’s Sustainability Platform

Cashify, an online platform to sell used electronic gadgets for instant cash, has raised $15 Mn from New York-based Olympus Capital Asia, a middle-market private equity firm. Olympus has made the investment through Asia Environmental Partners (AEP), its clean energy and sustainability platform.

Founded in 2015 by Amit Sethi, Mandeep Manocha and Nakul Kumar, Cashify also sells its own brand of refurbished smartphones under the brand ‘Phonepro’. The company plans to use the proceeds from this investment to further expand its footprint in India.

“We are looking forward to accelerating our investment in the electronics reuse and recycling sector and thereby enabling OEMs and consumers to materially reduce their carbon footprint,” said Mandeep Manocha, founder and CEO of Cashify.

Cashify claims to have served over 2 Mn customers in over 1,500 cities. The platform helps users with features such as price discovery, cash in hand and free pickup. Cashify also claims to be the buyback partner of brands such as Apple, Xiaomi, OnePlus, Vivo, Oppo, HP, Samsung and Dell in India. 

Before the recent funding round, Cashify had raised $13 Mn in four funding rounds from eight investors, with its last funding round coming in 2018 worth $12 Mn. 

In 2016, Cashify had acquihired Bengaluru-based MobiBing, also a marketplace for refurbished gadgets. 

“The management team at Cashify has an excellent track record in building a strong consumer-facing franchise and building relationships with OEMs, ecommerce companies and electronic product retailers to be present across all touchpoints for the consumer,” said Pankaj Ghai, managing director of Olympus’ AEP. 

Olympus’ India portfolio includes Aster DM Healthcare and HDFC Bank. 

The firm established Asia Environmental Partners in 2008 to target the fast-growing renewable energy and environmental sectors in Asia with a focus on investments that support the principles of sustainable development.  To date, AEP has made 20 investments in firms working on solar energy, hydropower, wind power, water treatment, waste-to-energy and sustainability products and services.

Cashify competes with the likes of Gururgam-based PreLoved Device, which entered the refurbished devices market in mid-2019. Operated by automotive company Detel, PreLoved Device acquired Delhi-based refurbished goods platform Overcart in a cash and stock deal. Overcart’s team and its customer base and products migrated to PreLoved Device post the acquisition. In addition, Amazon also runs a refurbished smartphones programme, while Flipkart has focussed on refurbished goods through its 2Gud platform.