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Online sales marketplace OfferUp raises $119m Series C on $1b+ valuation
Online sales marketplace OfferUp Inc. has raised $119 million Series C in a round led by Warburg Pincus and including GGV Capital and Altimeter Capital.
According to reports, the valuation on the round was $1 billion-plus, giving the company unicorn status for the first time.
Founded in 2011, OfferUp offers a mobile-focused marketplace that is billed as “changing how people buy and sell locally” by making selling an item online as easy as taking and sharing a photo from their phone.
The company claims it is now the largest mobile marketplace for local buyers and selling in the United States despite only coming out of stealth in 2015. It currently sits in the top four downloads in both the Apple App Store and Google Play lifestyle and shopping categories.
“We have built OfferUp into the kind of marketplace that people want – one that allows them to buy and sell things right in their own local communities, directly from their mobile phones. We are committed to building the best experience possible,” OfferUp Chief Executive Officer Nick Huzar said in a statement.
Who?
If you’ve never heard of OfferUp before, you’re not particularly alone as it may well be the biggest unicorn most people have never heard of. While far from being a household name yet, it does certainly look like OfferUp is quickly challenging a market that has long been dominated by the likes of Craigslist, eBay and the eBay-owned Gumtree.
Key to its success seems to be shaking up those marketplaces with a fresh, easy-to-use product, or as Warburg Pincus Managing Director Justin Sadrian notes, “The market of local buying and selling hadn’t changed significantly in two decades until [OfferUp] imagined what a smartphone could do to deliver an easier, faster and more enjoyable user experience…. That vision has helped expand the market, as people who never before posted items for sale have discovered how easy it is to use OfferUp.”
Including the new funding, OfferUp has raised $210.6 million to date. Previous investors include Allen & Company, Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue Management, High Line Venture Partners, Jackson Square Ventures, T. Rowe Price, Tiger Global Management, Vy Capital, Serena Glover, Andrew Wright and Rudy Gadre.
The company said it would use the new funding to continue its ongoing growth.
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