Used gadgets marketplace Cashify gets funding from Chinese recommerce giant

Cashify, an online platform for selling used electronics, has forged a strategic partnership with Chinese recommerce giant Aihuishou in a deal that also entails an investment, according to the report in The Economic Times.

The source-based report said the company did not disclose the specifics of the investment citing confidentiality.

The partnership is expected to help Cashify expand globally to markets such as Indonesia and the Middle East, where the two companies will operate as a joint entity, the report added.

China-headquartered Aihuishou is a bidding-based customer-to-business (C2B) platform for recycling and selling second-hand electronic items such as mobile phones.

Last June, Gurugram-based Cashify had raised $4 million (Rs 26 crore) from Chinese venture capital firm Shunwei Capital. Existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, M&S Partners and Blume Ventures had also put in money.

“This partnership will enable massive scale for us, at a time when we are looking to enter newer categories such as electronic appliances, cameras and wearable devices,” Manocha, who is also the CEO of Cashify, told The Economic Times.

E-mail queries sent to Cashify founders Mandeep Manocha and Nakul Kumar seeking more details did not elicit an immediate response.

Founded in 2013, Cashify is operated by Manak Waste Management Pvt. Ltd. Customers can enter details of gadgets such as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, TVs and gaming consoles on Cashify’s web and mobile platforms and get an instant quote on how much money they will get for it. The five-year-old startup then provides doorstep delivery and pays the seller after physical inspection of the gadget to check if it matches the description.

The company, which was earlier known as ReGlobe, offers it services in more than 35 cities. The company has also tied up with brands and companies like Amazon, Samsung, One Plus and HP as exchange partners.

Cashify has also experimented with inorganic growth as part of its efforts to scale up. In July 2016, Cashify had acqui-hired Bangalore-based MobiBing, a business-to-consumer marketplace for buying and selling refurbished and unboxed gadgets.

Manocha had earlier co-founded Zazzybox, a subscription e-commerce venture in the beauty & lifestyle products space. Co-founder and chief operating officer Kumar is an electronics and communication engineer who had earlier worked at companies including Amadeus and Tecnova.

Other players in the re-commerce space include Overcart and GreenDust. Cashify also indirectly competes with peer-to-peer classifieds ventures such as Quikr and OLX. In the broader used goods commerce space, a couple of ventures have raised funding recently.

Earlier this month, Noida-based second-hand goods listing platform Zamroo announced that it had secured an undisclosed amount in seed funding from an unnamed Singapore-based angel investor.

In April this year, Mumbai-based MJVS Fashion Services Pvt. Ltd, which operates online fashion resale marketplace CoutLoot, raised an additional $1 million (Rs 6.5 crore) as part of its pre-Series A round.