International Classifieds Site OLX Raises $13.5 Million Funding
This story was written by Rafat Ali.
Free classifieds site OLX is another one now in the crazy-money territory: it has raised $13.5 million in its second round of funding, from previous investors General Catalyst, Bessemer Venture Partners, Founders Fund and DN Capital. This brings the total raise to $23.5 million. In Sept 2006, it raised its $10 million first round. Founder and CEO Fabrice Grinda was previously th founder of NYC-based mobile content firm Zingy.
As to why the company needed this amount, Grinda writes on his blog: "In the end, in light of our ambitions and the insurance it buys in a probable economic downturn, we felt that raising more cash was the best solution despite the incremental dilution and liquidation preference."
OLX is a Craigslist-clone, only focused on markets outside U.S. Last year it made a strategic investment in Edeng.cn, a Chinese free classifieds site. A year before it bought Mundoanuncio.com, a classifieds site targeting the Hispanic market. Besides competition from Craigslist, it also competes with eBay's Kijiji, whose strongest markets are Europe and other countries.
By Rafat Ali