New tricks for second-hand e-commerce? UAE's "online pawnshop" North Ladder receives $5 million in financing

North Ladder , a UAE-based second-hand e-commerce company focusing on second-hand transactions of luxury goods and electronic products , recently held a press conference to announce that it has obtained US$5 million in Series A financing led by BECO Capital .

The launch also announced the appointment of Sandeep Shetty , formerly managing director of Uber subsidiary Careem, as co-founder and CEO of North Ladder.

With this financing, North Ladder will expand its platform, enhance customer experience and expand its business coverage. Its strategic focus in 2021 is to expand its business to Saudi Arabia and the United States .

Sandip Shetty said: "Our global auctions attract professional buyers from all over the world to bid," which made North Ladder see the growth potential of second-hand e-commerce in the Middle East.

North Ladder , formerly known as BuyBack Bazaar, was launched by Pishu Ganglani and Ricky Husaini in 2018. Users can sell their mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smart watches, expensive watches and even cars to the platform, which will verify and process the products before selling them to others.

This is a C2B2C sales model, similar to the official second-hand transactions on domestic second-hand trading websites such as "Zhuan Zhuan" and "Xianyu" .

North Ladder official website

Is there a "regret pill" in the world? North Ladder does. Rather than saying that North Ladder is a second-hand e-commerce, it is better to say that it is an "online pawn shop."

North Ladder has a special service. When users successfully sell their second-hand goods on the platform, they can choose to redeem the products within 15, 30, 45 or 60 days. Users need to pay the corresponding fees to the platform for choosing different redemption periods. This is very tempting for consumers who are in urgent need of cash flow in the short term but do not want to lose their "baby".

With this unique operating model, North Ladder has processed more than 15,000 second-hand transactions in the UAE to date, serving more than 85 countries.

However, some experts say this model is not completely safe . Consumers may borrow money to redeem the product within the specified time, which can easily lead to a debt spiral .

middle East

United Arab Emirates

E-commerce