Indian second-hand smartphone seller Cashify raises $12 million

Indian startup company Cashify has raised $12 million from Chinese investors for its second-hand smartphone business.

According to a report by TechCrunch, CDH Investments and Morningside along with Aihuishou - a Chinese startup that also sells used electronic goods similar to Cashify - led the round.

The already existing investors Bessemer Ventures and Shunwei also took part in the round. This has taken the amount raised by Cashify to around $19 million to date. Cashify mainly sells smartphones, laptops, consoles, TVs, and tablets.

“When we began we saw a lot of transactions for phone sales moving from offline to online. But consumer-to-consumer [for used devices] is highly opaque on price discovery and you never know if you are making the right decision on price and whether the transaction will take place in the timeframe.” Mandeep Manocha, CEO of Cashify said in an interview.

Apart from its website and app, Cashify also gets devices from trade-in programs for Samsung, Xiaomi, and Apple in India, as well as e-commerce companies like Flipkart, Amazon and Paytm Mall.

The money raised will help develop an online resale site that allows people to buy a second-hand smartphone from the company directly. Manocha also said that the devices sold online will be refurbished with new parts if required.

They will also include a box and a six-month warranty to enhance the consumer experience. As of now, Cashify claims they deal with 100,000 smartphones a month. They plan to reach 200,000 by the year-end.

Around 90 million used smartphones will be sold this year and by 2020 the number may reach 120 million, according to Cashify’s estimates. The startup is considering overseas possibilities.

“We will focus on India for at least next 12 months but we have had discussions on markets that would make sense to enter,” Manocha said.