New Mobile Online Classifieds Platform Raises $100M

Letgo, the mobile app that is geared toward local buying and selling, said on Thursday (Sept. 3) that it has garnered $100 million in Series A funding.

The investment came from Naspers Limited.

Letgo bills itself as a “hyperlocal marketplace optimized specifically for mobile use,” and its app has geolocation-based search and instant chat, which the company says links buyers and sellers instantly.

The platform is available on both Android and iOS systems in the United States and abroad.

The company said the Naspers investment will go toward expanding the letgo platform, which boasts more than 2 million downloads to date. Letgo also said its users have been especially active, posting more than 500,000 listings across the platform. Those users have also exchanged as many as 3 million messages. That activity has led to a total gross merchandise value transacted of more than $25 million.

Letgo also said that it is among the top 10 free shopping apps that are featured within the Google Play store in the United States and a host of other nations, ranging from Sweden, to New Zealand, to Norway and other European nations, including Italy and Spain. Letgo said that within the next few months it will push an “aggressive marketing campaign” that will center on gathering more U.S. consumers.

In a statement detailing the investment, letgo Founder Alec Oxenford said that “we built letgo because we saw an immense opportunity for innovation and growth in this space, particularly in the U.S. Our platform makes buying and selling household items faster and more intuitive than ever before.”

The executive will also continue in his dual role as chairman of OLX, an online classifieds platform that he cofounded nearly a decade ago and in which Naspers maintains a majority stake. OLX has expanded into international markets, such as India, Brazil and Poland, with a user base of more than 240 million users across 40 nations.

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