South African based ecommerce and media giant, Naspers, has committed to invest another $500 million in classifieds app, letgo. This was disclosed by the 3 year-old startup based in America. Naspers invested $100 million in 2015 and another $175 million in 2017. letgo alos announced that they had already received $150 million of the funds early this summer.
Naspers claims that its new investment was based on the company’s extraordinary growth and market opportunity. letgo said that the secondhand app has passed 100million downloads and 400 million listings. It also said that users have sent each other over 6 billion messages since its 2015 launch and is currently witnessing 13 million messages per day.
letgo says the “new investment will accelerate its growth, product evolution, expansion into new verticals and monetization efforts as it continues to make secondhand e-commerce an even bigger part of the sharing economy.” The number of monthly listers on its marketplace has grown 65 percent since the beginning of 2018, primarily driven by increased engagement and retention.
letgo has quickly built one of America’s most popular apps by combining technology like image recognition with intuitive design to make buying and selling secondhand much easier. Posting anything from a mountain bike to a video game console is as effortless as taking a photo because letgo’s technology automatically suggests a title, price and category. The company’s emphasis on simplicity is a major reason why comScore’s most recent U.S. mobile report ranks letgo second among the fastest growing apps in the U.S.
“We are extraordinarily fortunate to have investors who believe so strongly in our vision and team,” said letgo cofounder Alec Oxenford. “We are fueling unprecedented growth in the secondhand economy through meaningful innovation. Our app makes it simple for tens of millions of buyers and sellers to connect in their own neighborhoods so they can put more money in their pockets, declutter their lives and put their space to better use.”
“letgo has established itself as one of the most promising startups in the world by injecting excitement, new technology and fresh thinking into a space that’s lacked all of the above for decades in the U.S.,” said Martin Scheepbouwer, CEO of OLX Group, through which Naspers has invested in letgo.
Naspers has built a global reputation as one of the world’s largest and most successful investors in internet startups through its stakes in Tencent, Flipkart and others
