Grabr, the peer-to-peer marketplace that lets anyone become an international shopper, has today announced the close of a $3.5 million seed round led by Alexey Repik from RBV Capital. Konstantin Nikolaev of N-Trans Group also participated in the round, along with various angel investors.
Grabr works like this:
Shoppers who are having trouble finding a certain item (or affording to ship a certain item) can place their orders on Grabr’s marketplace. People traveling to a region where that item is sold can place bids on the order, and the person who placed the order chooses their preferred price/Traveler.
From there, the shopper heads off on their trip and picks up the item, whether it be sand from a particular beach as an anniversary gift or a rare Parisian handbag that isn’t sold in the States. They bring the item back, hand it off to the person who placed the order in a pre-selected location, and get paid out by the service.
Grabr says it has connected over 50,000 users, though hasn’t shared how many transactions have occurred on the marketplace.
The company plans on investing its new funding cash in expansion.
You can check out Grabr for yourself here.