OfferUp Raises $119M to Pursue Faster Growth in Local Marketplaces

Bellevue, WA-based OfferUp announced today a $119 million investment from Warburg Pincus, the private equity firm, with participation from new investors GGV Capital and Altimeter Capital.

The company—which runs a mobile-first marketplace for local goods, in competition with Craigslist and neighborhood garage sales, among others—is growing fast and hoovering up cash. This latest investment, which the company calls a Series C-1 round, brings the total raised by OfferUp co-founders Nick Huzar and Arean van Veelen to $210 million since they started the company in 2011.

“The continued confidence of the investment community is humbling, and we’re excited to invest this funding in the product and our people,” OfferUp says in a blog post on the new funding.

Huzar confirmed in media reports that the company’s valuation is now above $1 billion, making OfferUp one of the few private, venture-backed companies in the Seattle area to reach that threshold.

Whether that valuation is justified by its business remains to be seen. OfferUp said earlier this year it was on pace to host more than $14 billion in transactions in 2016, but it has yet to disclose how it plans to profit from all of that buying and selling.

Its chief competitor, Craigslist, set consumers’ expectations for the price of most online classified ads at free. (Craigslist does charge for listings in certain categories.)

OfferUp says it has seen 29 million downloads of its app in the U.S. alone, and is now eyeing international expansion. Other OfferUp investors include: Andreessen Horowitz, High Line Venture Partners, Jackson Square Ventures, T. Rowe Price, and angel investors including Serena Glover, Andrew Wright, and Rudy Gadre.

Here is some of our past coverage of OfferUp, and the mobile, local commerce and resale industry:

Inspired by a New Baby, OfferUp Aims to Simplify Selling Used Stuff

Startups Vie for “Craigslist Killer” Title As Mobile Claims Focus

OfferUp Raises $90M for Mobile, Local Craigslist Killer

Author: Benjamin Romano

Benjamin is the former Editor of Xconomy Seattle. He has covered the intersections of business, technology and the environment in the Pacific Northwest and beyond for more than a decade. At The Seattle Times he was the lead beat reporter covering Microsoft during Bill Gates’ transition from business to philanthropy. He also covered Seattle venture capital and biotech. Most recently, Benjamin followed the technology, finance and policies driving renewable energy development in the Western US for Recharge, a global trade publication. He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication.