Craigslist Rival OfferUp is Tech&rsquo;s Latest Unicorn

Leena Rao

<p>Craigslist competitor OfferUp is the latest technology company to join the elite group of privately-held Silicon Valley startups valued at $1 billion or more.</p><div class="paywall-selector"></div><div class="paywall">
<p>OfferUp said on Thursday that it had raised another $119 million at a $1 billion-plus valuation&mdash;it declined to be more specific&mdash;led by private equity giant Warburg Pincus, with new investors GGV Capital and Altimeter Capital joining in. Previous investors Andreessen Horowitz, T. Rowe Price, Vy Capital, and Coatue Management all participated in the round.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em><a href="https://fortune.com/getdatasheet/">Get Data Sheet</a>, <em>Fortune&rsquo;s</em> technology newsletter.</em></p>
<p>Seattle-based OfferUp, which has raised $210 million over the years, is a Craigslist-like mobile app for buying used products from people nearby. Founded in 2011, OfferUp&rsquo;s premise is simple: Sellers take a photo of a used couch, lamp, or dress, add a location, and post it for sale to others who have the app. Buyers can search for items close to where they are, or filter by price, and then message sellers to meet in person. Buyers pay with cash when they pick up the item.</p>
<p>In its latest <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/tech-startups-feel-an-ipo-chill-1445309822">funding round in March,</a> OfferUp was valued at $800 million.</p>
<p>OfferUp&rsquo;s CEO and co-founder Nick Huzar said that the app has been downloaded 29 million times over the past two years. Earlier this year, Huzar said that the company was on track to do $14 billion in sales volume within the United States this year.</p>
<p>To put that figure into perspective, <a href="https://fortune.com/company/ebay/" target="_blank">eBay</a> North America did $15 billion in transaction volume in 2003, more than eight years after its marketplace premiered. OfferUp has taken five years to match that amount, albeit nearly ten years later and in a different world of mobile technology.</p>
<p>While OfferUp claims to have massive growth in use, it still <a href="https://fortune.com/2016/03/08/craigslist-killer-offerup-is-growing-fast-but-still-no-revenue/">doesn&#8217;t make any money</a> from its transactions. Rival Craigslist charges between $25 and $75 to post job listings in a handful of U.S. cities.</p>
<p>Huzar said the company has started experimenting at making money, but he declined to share more.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>For more on unicorns, watch:</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><div class="vodvideocontainer" style="position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%;"><iframe src="//fortune.com/videos/embed/6adb2c27-be97-419b-aefc-74478406ae58" style="position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; overflow: hidden;" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></p>
<p>He explained that the new funding would be used for ramping up development of OfferUp&#8217;s anti-fraud technologies, an issue that Craigslist has faced for years. OfferUp&rsquo;s algorithms are designed to detect signs of possible scams such as asking for a phone number or a moneygram as payment.</p>
<p>The company eventually hopes to expand its marketplace beyond the U.S.</p></div>

OfferUp just raised a boatload of new cash.

Craigslist Rival OfferUp is Tech's Latest Unicorn

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Craigslist Rival OfferUp is Tech's Latest Unicorn | Fortune

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