Zefo: Mining gold from old goods
How Zefo became the god of all things in selling used goods
By
Last Updated: Feb 06, 2018, 11:27 IST1 min
Advertisement
(Left to right) Karan Gupta, Rohit Ramasubramanian, Arjit Gupta and Himesh JoshiImage: Nishant Ratnakar for Forbes India
Rohit Ramasubramanian | 27Karan Gupta | 28Himesh Joshi | 29Arjit Gupta | 29Co-founders, ZefoRohit Ramasubramanian, Karan Gupta and Himesh Joshi were colleagues at the Boston Consulting Group in Mumbai before they all quit in turns by mid-2015. Along with Joshi’s friend Arjit Gupta, they zeroed in on selling used goods by launching Zefo in August 2015, but not before contemplating starting a consumer products company and a food delivery business.
Advertisement
Then, the sale of used products was dominated by the likes of Quikr and OLX. No startup handled everything from supply and logistics to payments. No wonder few gave Zefo a chance. “It is an operationally complex business. Not everyone believed that it was going to be the next big thing,” says chief executive Ramasubramanian.
However, Zefo has proved its cynics wrong. It raised $15 million from Sequoia Capital, Helion Ventures and Beenext, and currently clocks about ₹15 crore in monthly sales.
Click here to view the full Forbes India 30 Under 30 list
Advertisement
Read More
It not only buys products directly from consumers before refurbishing and selling them, but also from behemoths like Flipkart, Amazon, Urban Ladder, Pepperfry and Micromax.
“Their model is better than the marketplace [model] because you take in the inventory. The margins are better and there is more credibility,” says Abhishek Goyal, angel investor and co-founder at Tracxn, a startup tracker.
Ramasubramanian is aware that he has to price his products wisely considering the discounts that online retailers offer on similar new products. Also, he needs to ensure a steady supply of products which are in demand.
Advertisement
So far, Zefo has done well and the quartet is striving to ensure that their success is not written off as a fluke.
First Published: Feb 06, 2018, 11:27
Subscribe NowEverything about entrepreneurship, the good, bad and the ugly of it, fascinates me. I take a keen interest on startups and venture capital firms and have written extensively on fundraises, M&As and bu
- Home /
- 30-under-30-2018 /
- Zefo-mining-gold-from-old-goods
Advertisement