By way of all of the final year’s lockdowns, location closures and other social distancing steps that governments have enacted and individuals have adopted to gradual the distribute of COVID-19, buying — and especially e-commerce — has remained a consistent and vastly essential service. It’s not just one thing that we had to do it is been an critical lifeline for several of us at a time when so minor else has felt normal. Nowadays, one of the startups that saw a huge raise in its provider as a end result of that development is saying a major fundraise to fuel its development.

Wallapop, a digital marketplace primarily based out of Barcelona, Spain that allows folks resell their utilised items, or sell objects like crafts that they make themselves, has elevated €157 million ($191 million at current rates), income that it will use to continue increasing the infrastructure that underpins its provider, so that it can grow the number of folks that use it.

Wallapop has confirmed that the funding is coming at a valuation of €690 million ($840 million) — a considerable soar on the $570 million pricetag sources near to the company gave us in 2016.

The funding is currently being led by Korelya Funds, a French VC fund backed by Korea’s Naver, with Accel, Perception Partners, 14W, GP Bullhound and Northzone — all previous backers of Wallapop — also participating.

The firm currently has 15 million customers — about fifty percent of Spain’s web population, CEO Rob Cassedy pointed out to us in an job interview earlier today — and it has taken care of a decent No. four position among Spain’s searching applications, in accordance to figures from App Annie.

The startup has also lately been creating out delivery providers, known as Envios, to support people get the products they are offering to customers, which has expanded the range from local product sales to those that can be produced across the country. About twenty% of merchandise go through Envios now, Cassedy stated, and the program is to keep on doubling down on that and relevant providers.

Naver itself is a sturdy participant in e-commerce and apps — it is the business behind Asian messaging giant Line, amongst other electronic properties — and so this is in part a strategic investment. Wallapop will be leaning on Naver and its technology in its very own R&D, and on Naver’s side it will give the company a foothold in the European marketplace at a time when it has been sharpening its technique in e-commerce.

The funding is an fascinating flip for a organization that has observed some noteworthy fits and commences.

Founded in 2013 in Spain, it rapidly shot to the leading of the charts in a market that has traditionally been sluggish to embrace e-commerce in excess of much more conventional brick-and-mortar retail.

By 2016, Wallapop was merging with a rival, LetGo, as component of a larger method to crack the U.S. market with more cash in tow.

But by 2018, that strategy was shelved, with Wallapop quietly selling its stake in the LetGo venture for $189 million. (LetGo elevated $500 million much more on its own around that time, but its fate was not to remain independent: it was eventually obtained by yet yet another competitor in the virtual classifieds area, OfferUp, in 2020, for an undisclosed sum.)

Wallapop has for the final two a long time concentrated mostly on increasing in Spain relatively than operating following enterprise further afield, and alternatively of expanding the assortment of merchandise that it may well offer on its system — it doesn’t market foods, nor work with retailers in an Amazon-type market play, nor does it have ideas to do everything like go into video clip or offering other types of digital services — it has honed in particularly on making an attempt to increase the encounter that it does provide to end users.

“I put in 12 years at eBay and noticed the transition it produced to new merchandise from employed items,” explained Cassedy. “Let’s just say it wasn’t the path I believed we should get for Wallapop. We are laser-targeted on exclusive products, with the extensive majority of that secondhand with some artisan goods. It is really distinct from big box.”

It might imply that the firm has not ballooned and boomed in the way that so numerous startups may possibly, specially those fueled by hundreds of hundreds of thousands in expenditure and hoopla — some of which pays off spectacularly, and some of which cataclysmically does not. But it has intended a steady presence in the industry, a single maybe created on a far more solid identification.

Wallapop’s progress in the previous calendar year is the result of some distinct traits in the industry that ended up in component fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic. All of them have served create up a profile for the firm as a type of upscale, virtual car boot sale or flea marketplace.


Individuals shelling out much more time in their residences have been concentrated on clearing out place and obtaining rid of things. Other people are eager to acquire new products now that they are shelling out far more time at residence, but want to invest less on them, possibly simply because they are facing employment or other economic uncertainty. Yet others have located them selves out of perform, or receiving less operate, and are turning to turning into entrepreneurs and creating their own items to promote in a more grassroots way.

In all of those instances, there has been a thrust for far more sustainability, with individuals placing less squander into the entire world by recycling and upcycling products alternatively.

At the identical time, Facebook hasn’t genuinely created big inroads in the region with its Market, and Amazon has also not appeared as a danger to Wallapop, Cassedy famous.

All of these have experienced a massive influence on Wallapop’s business, but it was not usually this way. Cassedy stated that the 1st lockdown in Spain observed company plummet, as men and women faced severe limitations on their movements, unable to go away their houses other than for the most vital obligations like purchasing meals or acquiring on their own to the hospital.

“It was a roller coaster for us,” he mentioned.

“We entered the yr with extraordinary momentum, very robust.” But he mentioned that the fall started in March, when “not only did it grow to be not all right to leave the house and trade locally but the put up office stopped offering parcels. Our enterprise went off a cliff in March and April.”

Then when the constraints were lifted in May possibly, factors started to bounce again far more than ever prior to, nearly overnight, he stated.

“The economic uncertainty triggered people to seek out a lot more benefit, greater deals, investing significantly less money, and indeed they were clearing out closets,” he mentioned. “We observed quantities bounce back again forty-50% expansion calendar year-on-12 months in June.”

The huge issue was no matter whether that development was a blip or there to say. He said it has ongoing into 2021 so significantly. “It’s a validation of what we see as lengthy-phrase developments driving the organization.”

Naver has produced a large business out of retaining robust regional emphasis in its items up to now, so in a way you could see it keep on that although nevertheless growing, by investing in another robust regional participant. Even though it seems Wallapop has a website in the U.K., it’s not some thing that it has pushed much as a business.

“The global demand for C2C and resale platforms is expanding with renewed determination in sustainable intake, specifically by more youthful millennials and Gen Z,” noted Seong-sook Han, CEO of Naver Corp., in a statement. “We concur with Wallapop’s philosophy of acutely aware consumption and are enthused to support their progress with our technology and create international synergies.”

I’ll also incorporate that it is heartening, as a customer, to see priorities like sustainability becoming given thought, too. Ideally it is not just lip support but a genuine recognition that this is one thing that ought to be inspired and backed.

“Our economies are switching in direction of a a lot more sustainable growth design following investing in Vestiaire Collective last 12 months, wallapop is Korelya’s next expenditure in the circular economy, although COVID-19 is only strengthening that pattern. It is Korelya’s mission to back tomorrow’s European tech champions and we believe that Naver has a proven tech and solution edge that will aid the business enhance its foremost situation in Europe,” added Fleur Pellerin, CEO of Korelya Funds.