Online used-phone seller Cashify has raised $12 million led by China’s private equity firm CDH Investments and early-stage fund Morningside Ventures along with strategic investor AiHouShou, the company said on Thursday.
Existing investors, including Shunwei Capital, Bessemer Venture and Trifecta Capital, have also participated in the round, said Mandeep Manocha, the co-founder and chief executive officer of Cashify which is owned and run by Manak Waste Management Pvt. Ltd. Cashify, which also counts Blume Ventures and M&S partners as its investors, plans to utilise the funds for growing business in India and abroad, expanding the offline reach and scaling pop-up store services. It will tap into AiHouShou’s technology, operational and back-end capabilities to expand into India and markets like West Asia and South-East Asia.
“We are setting up bigger warehouses for processing the devices and refurbishing sites. A fair amount of money will also go into building more technology products. This time we are also focusing on building Cashify as a brand and reaching out to our customers,” said Manocha.
Over the next 12 months, Cashify will focus on building its offline presence and position itself to enter the unorganised re-selling marketplace in India by partnering with small vendors. It will expand the mobile-repairing vertical, ScreenPro, that includes services like screen-replacement and enter mobile-screen insurance in another eight-ten months, said Manocha.
“I believe with more Chinese capital support and AiHouShou’s strategic alliance, Cashify will be able to reshape the re-commerce industry in India. So far, they have executed and evolved fast. In the near future, they will be able to leverage all resources and bring up a more effective omni-channel strategy to change this industry,” Xiaoyu Matthew Ma, vice-president at CDH Investments said.
The phone re-selling industry is estimated to be 80-90 million handsets in year, where Cashify accounts for one million handsets annually, Manocha said. The company expects to double the handset sale in a year, he said.
Prior to this round, the Gurugram-based re-commerce startup raised funding from Trifecta Capital in February this year and an undisclosed amount in series A from new and existing investors in July 2017.
Founded in 2013, Cashify, formerly known as Re-Globe, is an online marketplace to sell old or used gadgets for instant cash and offers free home-pickups. It competes with Budli, Overcart, and Green Dust, as well as established re-selling platforms such as Olx and Quickr.
Source: Mint