Blume and Bessemer Ventures-backed Cashify acquihires Bengaluru-based MobiBing

Cashify (earlier called ReGlobe) on Moday announced acquihiring Bengaluru-based MobiBing, to increase its penetration into the south Indian markets. MobiBing is a B2C marketplace for buying and selling overstock, refurbished and unboxed gadgets.

As a part of the deal, Mobibing's Founder, Sibgathulla Zeeshan, will join Cashify’s strategic initiatives team to build, expand and upgrade its product offerings, while helping then company enhance its geographical presence.

Launched in 2013, Cashify has partnerships with e-commerce, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and offline retailers like Samsung, Snapdeal, Amazon, Croma Retail and HP. Headquarted in Gurgaon, the Cashify platform offers home pickup service and instant cash for selling smartphones. In April last year, the firm was reported to receiving funding of $1 million from US-based Bessemer Ventures and Blume Ventures.

Cashify was expecting to close $1 million in sales revenues by December 2015.

On the other hand, launched in July 2015, MobiBing is a platform for refurbished gadgets with meta-search engine, listing more than 4,500 smartphones, tablets and laptops categories with the prime focus to re-sell or exchange quality smartphones, laptops and tablets to customers. The firm was also a part of the Google Developer Launchpad in India as well as a part of the Microsoft Bizsparks programme.

On the acquisition, Mandeep Manocha, CEO and Co-founder, Cashify, said,

After closely following the progress of MobiBing and the drive of Zeeshan, we knew that the best way to create great re-commerce consumer experience and more penetration in the south India market was to integrate MobiBing’s offering with Cashify.

The whole team at of MobiBing will be joining Cashify’s Bengaluru office.

The re-commerce buzz

There are several other players in the space including names like Budli, YNew and ValueCart. Although owning a different business model, online classifieds like OLX and Quikr continue to dominate the online market of re-selling goods.

To win over customers, these re-commerce companies adopt a more scientific approach to price discovery, giving a layer of convenience to customers. This scientific approach includes specially-designed software, which helps determine product prices based on metrics of age, wear and tear, followed by the market demand.

Further, re-commerce companies are typically expected to get a margin of 15-20 percent on each product, while also helping e-commerce companies liquidify their products.