letgo Lands $500M In New Capital From Naspers

letgo, the app to buy and sell locally, announced Wednesday (Aug. 8) that Naspers invested $500 million of new capital into the company.

According to a press release, $150 million was already invested in letgo earlier in the summer. The company said that Naspers invested in letgo, in part, because of its growth and market opportunity. The new financing will be used to speed up growth and for product evolution, expansion into new verticals and monetization efforts.

letgo also said that its app has passed 100 million downloads, 400 million listings and 6 billion messages sent between users, with most of its users located in the U.S. The number of monthly listers on its marketplace has grown 65 percent since the beginning of 2018, letgo said.

“We are extraordinarily fortunate to have investors who believe so strongly in our vision and team,” said letgo Co-founder Alec Oxenford in the press release. “We are fueling 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 neighborhoods so they can put more money in their pockets, declutter their lives and put their space to better use.”

Meanwhile, CEO Martin Scheepbouwer of OLX Group, through which Naspers invested in letgo, said it was drawn to letgo because it “has established itself as one of the most promising startups in the world by injecting excitement, new technology and fresh thinking into a space that’s lacked all of the above for decades in the U.S.”

Earlier this summer, letgo expanded its offering, announcing that users can now browse and list homes and other properties for sale. The new functionality is being rolled out gradually, and will be available to all users in the U.S. by the end of January.

“We see this as the natural evolution of a vast and diverse marketplace like ours, especially as we approach the 100 million download milestone,” said Oxenford in a press release at the time. “We’ve designed letgo to make it effortless to list what you don’t need and find what you do in your own neighborhood, whether that’s a snowboard, an SUV or a two-bedroom apartment with a view.”

With the app, users can add photos and details to property listings at anytime with just a few taps. They can also filter local listings when searching for properties, and can live chat within the app.