Circle, a Bengaluru-based marketplace for pre-owned goods, has raised Rs 25 crore in a seed funding round led by Nexus Venture Partners. The funding gives the startup fresh capital to take its managed resale model beyond its home city and to deepen the technology that decides what used products are worth.
The round works out to about USD 2.6 million. Circle said the money will go towards expanding to a second market, tightening its AI-powered pricing, product discovery and verification tools, and strengthening its logistics network.
The funding and the investors
Nexus Venture Partners led the seed round. Existing backers Titan Capital and Myntra cofounder Raveen Sastry participated, and Ajith Pai, the chief operating officer of logistics major Delhivery, joined as an angel investor. The funding was reported by The Economic Times and IndianWeb2.
Circle had earlier raised Rs 3.4 crore in a pre-seed round led by Titan Capital in November 2025, in which Sastry also invested. The mix of an early-stage venture fund, a founder-investor and an operating executive from logistics reflects the two things the company must get right: transactions and trust.
How Circle will use the funds
The company plans to invest in the software that sits at the centre of its model: AI-powered pricing, product discovery and verification. It will also widen its logistics network and add capacity at its Trust Hubs, the centres where items are inspected, verified and handed over to buyers.
Hiring for the technology and operations teams is the other stated priority, as the company prepares to run the same playbook in a city it has not yet entered.
A managed marketplace, not an inventory owner
Circle runs a managed marketplace rather than a listings board. It does not buy or hold the products it sells. Instead it manages the transaction from end to end, handling listings, pickup and seller payouts, and offering buyers product verification plus a three day guarantee.
That asset-light approach keeps the balance sheet light, but it also means Circle takes on the parts of resale that buyers trust least: confirming that an item is genuine and making sure goods and money move safely between strangers. The platform pairs AI tools with human checking. Categories range from smartphones, gaming consoles and cameras to furniture, watches, handbags and sneakers.
Read more: India’s consumer brands are drawing larger growth cheques. KL Rahul-Backed Boldfit Raises Over Rs 400 Crore in Series B Funding Round covers how a Bengaluru fitness brand is scaling its retail footprint across India.
Traction so far
Circle says it facilitated about Rs 25 crore in pre-owned goods sales within a year of launch. It also reports more than one million visitors and around 1 lakh listings in Bengaluru.
The company says sellers typically find buyers within three days, compared with weeks or months on classifieds platforms. Speed of sale is the main pitch Circle makes to both sides of the market.
The market and the competition
India’s recommerce market is projected to reach USD 5.91 billion in 2026 and USD 8.61 billion by 2030, a compound annual growth rate of about 9.8 percent, according to ResearchAndMarkets.
Circle competes with classifieds platforms such as OLX India and Quikr, electronics-focused Cashify and community resale app FreeUp. Those players overlap with Circle across categories and services rather than running identical operating models. Circle’s bet is that managing the transaction, instead of merely listing an item, is what lets people sell used goods at higher value.
What happens next
The immediate test is geographic. Proving the model in a second city, with the same verification and logistics quality, is the milestone the new money is meant to buy.
For Nexus Venture Partners, the wager is on a category where trust, logistics and pricing decide whether resale feels safe and simple enough for mainstream buyers.
