TipTop, the startup that provides on the spot money for electronics, is launching TipTop Store: a means for customers to buy and commerce in units. TipTop Store builds on the success of TipTop Money, which was launched late final yr. It lets individuals get on the spot payouts for digital units like smartphones, iPads, cameras, sport techniques and extra.
Many individuals promote previous units so as to buy new ones, and typically they don’t at all times need the most recent and costliest mannequin. Historically, customers flip to promoting platforms or use trade-in packages that always give reward playing cards that may be put towards a brand new buy.
TipTop needs to take away the trouble by combining either side of the equation. Folks should purchase new, open-box and refurbished units by money and trade-ins. “You’ve this unified trade-in cart, which lets you commerce in something that you’ve got,” the startup’s founder, Bastian Lehmann, instructed TechCrunch. Lehmann previously based Postmates.
“It doesn’t should be from the identical model, it doesn’t even should be a associated product,” he mentioned. “After which we do what now we have achieved over the past yr, we immediately acknowledge the worth of the merchandise that you simply not want, and you’ll then buy issues with a reduction as a result of we’re taking your commerce in worth into consideration.”
Prospects can commerce in an previous Samsung Galaxy for a reduction on an iPad, an Apple HomePod mini for a Nintendo Swap, or an iPhone for a Nothing telephone. Prospects may also make a purchase order with no trade-in.
TipTop processes the funds by Stripe and handles the deliveries. Not like on platforms like eBay and Fb Market, customers aren’t shopping for merchandise on TipTop from different customers, because the units are owned by the startup itself.
Lehmann teased that subsequent month, the startup shall be launching a brand new product that may give retailers the flexibility to run on the spot buying and selling packages.
Thus far, TipTop has raised $23 million in Collection A funding from traders, together with Andreessen Horowitz (Marc Andreessen is on the board), plus OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, AngelList co-founder Naval Ravikant, and Pinterest, Coinbase, and DoorDash board member Gokul Rajaram.
