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Pre-owned goods marketplace Circle has raised ₹25 Cr (about $2.6 Mn) in a seed funding round led by Nexus Venture Partners, with participation from existing investors Titan Capital and Myntra cofounder Raveen Sastry. Delhivery COO Ajith Pai also joined the round as an angel investor. The startup will use the fresh capital to expand beyond Bengaluru and strengthen its AI-powered pricing, product discovery, and verification tools. It also plans to expand its logistics network and Trust Hubs, which handle product verification and fulfillment. Founded in 2025 by Chirag Kataruka and Ankit Misra, Circle operates a managed marketplace for pre-owned goods, handling product verification, payments and logistics for transactions between individual buyers and sellers without owning inventory. Its platform combines AI-powered tools with human verification, with products ranging from smartphones, gaming consoles, and cameras to furniture, watches, handbags, and sneakers. Circle handles listing, pickup, and seller payouts, while offering buyers product verification and a three-day guarantee. The Bengaluru-based startup claims to have facilitated around ₹25 Cr in pre-owned goods sales within a year of launch, attracting over 1 Mn visitors and generating 1 Lakh listings in the city. It said sellers typically find buyers within three days, compared with weeks or months on classifieds platforms. The startup previously raised ₹3.4 Cr in a pre-seed round led by Titan Capital in November last year, with participation from Sastry. Circle operates in a pre-owned goods market that includes classifieds platforms OLX India and Quikr, electronics-focused Cashify, and community resale platform FreeUp. These players overlap with Circle across different categories and services, rather than following an identical operating model. Circle’s approach centres on managing transactions to address the verification, payment, and logistics challenges associated with buying and selling used goods. According to ResearchAndMarkets, India’s recommerce market is projected to reach $5.91 Bn in 2026 and $8.61 Bn by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 9.8% over 2026-2030.
document fetched 2026-10-15 03:00 · canonical https://inc42.com/buzz/circle-raises-%e2%82%b925-cr-to-expand-its-pre-owned-goods-marketplace-beyond-bengaluru