Media and e-commerce group Naspers agreed yesterday to provide a total of $500m of funding for US-based e-commerce app developer Letgo, having already invested $150m of the sum earlier this year.
Naspers did not specify when it invested the money, stating only that it was supplied “earlier this summer,” but it made the investment through online marketplace subsidiary OLX.
Letgo has created an app that enables users to list, sell and buy secondhand goods, utilising an artificial intelligence system that can set a category, title and price for each item based only on a photo. It has been downloaded more than 100 million times and hosted some 400 million listings.
Letgo plans to use the funding to support the further development and monetisation of the platform as it looks to move into new verticals following the introduction of real estate listings last month.
The total would increase the overall amount of funding accumulated by the company to $975m since it was founded in 2015. It last raised money in September 2017 when it secured $100m from undisclosed investors at a $1bn valuation.
Naspers initially provided $100m in series A funding for Letgo in 2015 in a deal that was followed by $100m from unnamed existing investors in a mid-2016 round.
Letgo received $175m in a January 2017 round featuring Naspers, venture capital fund 14W and VC firms Accel, Insight Venture Partners and New Enterprise Associates, the announcement also identifying Eight Roads Ventures, Mangrove Capital Partners and FJ Lab as Letgo backers.
Alec Oxenford, co-founder and president of Letgo, said: “We are extraordinarily fortunate to have investors who believe so strongly in our vision and team. We are fuelling 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 neighbourhoods so they can put more money in their pockets, declutter their lives and put their space to better use.”