Second-hand goods marketplace Zefo raises $6 mn from Sequoia, others

Bengaluru-based Zero Effort Technologies Pvt Ltd, which runs second-hand goods marketplace Zefo, has raised $6 million (Rs 40 crore) in Series A round of funding led by Sequoia India, with participation from venture capital firms Beenext and Helion Ventures, which is also an existing investor.

Zefo sells used products, which are verified by the site.

In a statement, the company said on Tuesday that "the latest funding will allow Zefo to diversify into new geographies and categories and extend its reach in existing categories".

The company will also use the funds to invest in technology and expand its workforce.

The company said in the statement that the household goods are a $40-50 billion marketplace. "Zefo is currently growing at a rate of 40% every month," said Rohit Ramasubramanian, cofounder, Zefo. He claimed that the company is catering to more than 30,000 customers and selling 400-500 products every day.

Ramasubramanian told Techcircle, over telephone, that he aims to take the number of goods sold to 1000-1500 a day by the end of this fiscal year.

Zefo was founded by Arjit Gupta, Rohit Ramasubramanian, Himesh Joshi and Karan Gupta in 2015. Ramasubramanian, a graduate from IIT-Madras, and Karan Gupta, a graduate from IIT-Delhi, have both worked with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Helion Venture Partners prior to Zefo.

Joshi, also a graduate from IIT-Delhi, was working with BCG as a consultant before co-founding Zefo while Arjit Gupta, an alumnus from IIIT-Allahabad, has worked with companies such as Flipkart, Amazon and Adobe in the past.

Last year, the company had raised $800,000 in funding from Helion Venture Partners and other investors, according to the data available with VCCEdge, the data and research platform of News Corp VCCircle.

Abheek Anand, principal at Sequoia Capital India Advisors, said in the statement that "Zefo's unique selling proposition lies in its ability to bring the element of trust, reliability and convenience in a market where these have been largely ignored."

The startup currently operates in Bangalore, Mysore, Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida and Mumbai, and offers televisions, refrigerators, washing machines and microwaves under the appliances category and beds, sofas, dining tables and other furnishing products in the furniture category.

In a similar category, home design and décor startup Livspace has secured $8 million (Rs 41.84 crore) in a fresh round of funding from existing investors Helion Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners and Jungle Ventures.

Beenext Pte. Ltd. is a venture capital fund with $60 million assets under the management. It provides early stage capital to the companies operating in India, Southeast Asia, Japan and the US. It seeks to invest in information technology specialised in internet and mobile-related businesses.

It had recently invested in Mumbai-based White Shadow Technology Pvt. Ltd that operates online business-to-business (B2B) marketplace Bharat Bazaar.