LetGo and Wallapop has merged their US operations to compete with bigger rivals Craigslist and eBay to tackle the fastest growing mobile marketplace for second hand goods.
“With this partnership in place, no one is better positioned than letgo to capitalize on the immense opportunity for growth in U.S. classifieds,” said Martin Scheepbouwer, CEO of Naspers Classifieds.
As part of the transaction, Wallapop U.S. operations will be absorbed into LetGo. The combined entity will be majority owned and managed by letgo and will operate under the LetGo brand on the l LetGo platform. Existing shareholders will also be injecting $100 million (R1.5 billion) of new funds to grow the business aggressively.
Last year in September, LetGo announced that South African-based Naspers invested $100 million into the start-up.
“Since launching last year, LetGo has clearly tapped into the enormous and rising demand among consumers for a better way to buy and sell in their own neighborhoods,” said LetGo co-founder Alec Oxenford.
“That is exactly why we have grown so quickly – with millions of downloads and even more items listed for sale. We are excited to be working with Wallapop’s insightful leadership team, who saw these trends taking shape and entered the sector early. This partnership is a significant milestone for LetGo and the industry as a whole, and is a substantial advantage as we continue to scale nationally.”
Letgo, which was founded in 2015 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.
The start-up headquartered in New York and Barcelona was founded by Alec Oxenford, Jordi Castello and Enrique Linares. Oxenford and Fabrice Grinda co-founded global online classifieds leader OLX, which has attracted hundreds of millions of active users in India, Brazil, Poland and other growth markets around the world.
The agreement with Wallapop comes amid very strong early growth for both LetGo and Wallapop, fueled by increasing consumer demand for a streamlined, modern and mobile-first alternative to older platforms like Craigslist.
“We see this merger as a game changer in the U.S. mobile classifieds competitive landscape,” said Agustin Gomez, Wallapop co-founder and CEO. “LetGo and Wallapop share a chemistry and an aligned vision that were key in making this deal a reality.”