YoungPlanet, an app that aims to cashlessly give children’s’ products a second life, has see its user base grow to 41,000 and use of its service rise 403% since it started in 2019. The company has also now raised £500,000 in funding to continue to expand.
YoungPlanet offers a platform where parents can list or request childrens’ items from books and clothes to toys and baby equipment. All of the items are matched with those who want them and trading is free.
Founded by husband and wife duo Jason and Emma Ash, company is planning to expand across the UK from its London base and will add a range of new functions including gamification and integrated postage.
In the past seven months, 25,000 new parents signed up for the app taking user numbers past 41,000. schools re-opened, YoungPlanet has seen its monthly average user increase by 203% and more than 10,000 children’s items have found new homes through the service.
The app is now valued at £6.5m, but could well see its value rise to around £9m as the sharing economy takes off in the next five years, says the company.
Jason Ash, co-founder of YoungPlanet, comments: “YoungPlanet’s mission has been to help parents become more sustainable, and we’re overjoyed that our investors and community members have chosen to invest in this journey with us. Being overfunded within the first 7 hours of our crowdfunding campaign going live was a huge success, and to see that we have overachieved our funding goals by 56% to raise over half a million, shows just how many people believe in our mission.”
