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Mumbai-based P2P marketplace ListUp has raised $500K (INR 3.3 Cr) in its seed round of funding led by Kae Capital, along with participation of Kunal Shah (FreeCharge, CEO) and Sandeep Tandon (Tandon Group). Sasha Mirchandani of Kae Capital will be joining the board with this round.
Founded by Sumit Gupta, Pulkit Gupta and Saurabh Jain, ListUp, was launched in January 2016 and aims to disrupt age-old classifieds in India. ListUp is focused on P2P exchange of second hand goods, which aims to bridge buyers & sellers using location-based discovery of products and social approach to classifieds. Centred around geographical proximity, ListUp, enables people to discover interesting goods being sold in their neighbourhood, thereby minimising the time between contacting the seller via direct chat and meeting them in person. Unlike existing classifieds platforms, where there is no real seller identity, all ListUp users are socially verified, thereby adding to the trust factor in the transaction.
Sumit Gupta, Co-founder & CEO, stated, “This problem particularly excites me a lot, it’s is a huge opportunity in India and there’s lot more innovation that can be done in the used goods space using technology. With the increasing smartphone adoption and our unique approach to age-old classifieds, we’re making buying & selling of used goods easier, safer and much faster.”
As per Sumit, app downloads are currently on the higher side of 10K to 50K range in last 3-4 months. The app was officially launched on Feb 28th. The startup claims to have a 100% MoM verified user growth and with an average active user spending around 15 mins per day on the app and active sellers spending 30 mins daily. The startup is also witnessing 300% MoM growth in terms of product listings. Currently, it’s free for both buyers and sellers but will soon have a monetisation model in place.
Shubhankar Bhattacharya, VP at Kae Capital, stated, “Sumit, Pulkit & Saurabh represent an exceptional trio of scrappy entrepreneurs. What they have created at ListUp is an easy-to-use and fun way to buy and sell used-goods. In many ways, they are redefining the shopping experience for the large and rapidly growing market for used products, and we are happy to partner with them on this exciting journey.”
The startup will use the proceeds to build technology for connecting relevant buyers & sellers with personalised feed using data, product enhancements, and creating network density in the target markets.
As per research, in India, an average Indian hoards at least 20,000 worth of items they don’t use anymore and can turn it into real cash. ListUp’s proposition is to bring in a mobile approach to traditional classifieds and allow users to instantly reach out to all prospective buyers nearby and thus enabling quicker & safer transactions. Its competitors in the online classified space include Olx and Quikr. This week, Amazon has also jumped into used goods space, with its online marketplace Junglee, finally rolling out its service to enable a platform where users can sell used goods.
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