NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--letgo, an easy to use and highly visual mobile app for buying and selling items locally, today announced that it raised $100 million in Series A funding from Naspers Limited (“Naspers”) (JSE:NPN, LSE:NPSN), one of the most successful Internet and media companies in the world.
Available on iOS and Android devices in the U.S. and worldwide, letgo is a fast-growing, hyperlocal marketplace optimized specifically for mobile use. The app offers features like instant chat and geolocation-based search, allowing users to connect instantly and for free, without the hassles and delays of email.
“We built letgo because we saw an immense opportunity for innovation and growth in this space, particularly in the U.S.,” said letgo founder Alec Oxenford. “Our platform makes buying and selling household items faster and more intuitive than ever before. This technology – along with Naspers’ significant investment and support, our aggressive plan to grow the platform, and our shared experience building successful companies in this sector – will allow us to capitalize on an area of ecommerce that is poised for explosive growth.”
“Alec has distinguished himself as an expert with an extraordinary track record in mobile ecommerce,” said Martin Scheepbouwer, CEO of Naspers Classifieds. “We have seen firsthand Alec’s ability to execute on his vision as we worked together to build OLX into the global force it is today. In letgo, Alec has built a platform that is perfectly tailored to the American consumer, and we’re excited to help his team take it to the next level.”
Oxenford continues to serve as chairman of OLX, the online classifieds platform he co-founded in 2006, in which Naspers later acquired a majority stake. Together they grew OLX, the leading classifieds platform in growth markets like India, Brazil and Poland, into one of the most-used online platforms in the world, with over 240 million active users in more than 40 countries.
Naspers has a strong track record in identifying, nurturing and operating successful technology businesses across a range of sectors. In addition to OLX, Naspers holds significant stakes in Tencent, Flipkart, Allegro and other top Internet businesses globally.
To date, letgo has surpassed 2 million downloads, with users posting more than 500,000 listings and exchanging almost 3 million messages, resulting in a total gross merchandise value of over $25 million. Already ranked in the top 10 free shopping apps in the Google Play store in the United States, Sweden, Turkey, New Zealand, Norway, Italy and Spain, the company plans to launch an aggressive marketing campaign focused on U.S. consumers in the coming months.
About letgo:
letgo is a fun, easy to use, and highly visual mobile marketplace allowing users to post, buy, sell and communicate with each other instantly and for free. Launched in 2015, the service has already been downloaded more than 2 million times – with users in the U.S. and around the world posting more than 500,000 listings with a total gross merchandise value of over $25 million. letgo was founded by Alec Oxenford, Jordi Castello and Enrique Linares. Oxenford, an expert and accomplished entrepreneur, previously launched and scaled multiple successful ecommerce startups, such as global online classifieds leader OLX (co-founded by Oxenford and Fabrice Grinda), which has attracted hundreds of millions of active users in India, Brazil, Poland and other growth markets around the world.
letgo is headquartered in New York and Barcelona. For more information, please visit www.letgo.com and download the letgo app for Android and iOS devices.
About Naspers:
Founded in 1915, Naspers is a broad-based multinational internet and media group offering services in more than 130 countries. Its principal operations are in ecommerce (i.e. classifieds, online retail, marketplaces, online comparison shopping, payments and online services), pay-television and print media. The group also has minority investments in listed, integrated social-network platforms Tencent (SEHK 0700) and Mail.ru (LSE:MAIL). Naspers is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (NPN.SJ) and has an ADR listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE:NPSN). For more information, please visit www.naspers.com.
