Second-hand electronics platform Aihuishou valued at US$1.5b after raising US$150m in latest financing

Aihuishou, an online second-hand consumer electronics trading platform, said today that it raised US$150 million in the latest round of financing, giving the company a market value of US$1.5 billion.

Tiger Global Management and JD.com led the latest investment. Previously, Aihuishou had secured four rounds of financing valued at a total of US$132 million, with investors including Morningside, JD.com, IFC, Cathay Capital, Tiantu Capital and Greenwoods Investment.

Aihuishou will use the US$150 million to invest in information security. The company will open more directly-owned outlets in China, said Chen Xuefeng, founder and CEO of Aihuishou.

Founded in 2011, Aihuishou pays consumers for used smartphones and iPads and re-sells them for profit. Its 100,000 outlets in China generate an annual trade volume of 4 billion yuan (US$6.06 billion).

The second-hand smartphone market in China is booming due to users' replacing their models rapidly. It’s one of the top three second-hand markets in China together with cars and houses, industry insiders said.