Gazelle Leaps Past $35M in Revenue, Pushed by iPhone 5
Date: 10/10/2012
Company: Gazelle
Source: Xconomy
Which local consumer-facing tech company is benefiting the most from the new iPhone release? It just might be Gazelle (fka Second Rotation).
The six-year-old Boston startup, which has raised roughly $46 million in venture funding from Venrock, RockPort Capital Partners, and other investors, is starting to turn the corner on the “re-commerce” market—buying used smartphones and other devices from consumers and reselling them to wholesale buyers, insurance and device-warranty companies, and online retailers.
The iPhone 5 release is a big deal for the company, because new iPhone owners can sell their older models to Gazelle and get money for them instead of putting them in a drawer, or giving them away. Gazelle says its number of device trade-ins in 2012 has been about four times what it was last year, and in the past few weeks, more than 3 million offers to sell old iPhones have come in. (Apple sold about 5 million iPhone 5s in its opening weekend, by comparison.)