TipTop, the startup that offers instant cash for electronics, launches TipTop Shop, a way for users to buy and trade devices. TipTop Shop builds on the success of TipTop Cash, which launched late last year. It allows users to receive instant payments for electronic devices such as smartphones, iPads, cameras, gaming systems and more.
Many people sell old devices to buy new ones and sometimes they don’t always want the latest and most expensive model. Traditionally, consumers turn to sales platforms or use transaction programs that often give gift cards that can be put toward a new purchase.
TipTop wants to take the hassle out of it by combining both sides of the equation. People can buy new, unlocked and refurbished devices through cash and trade-ins. “You have this single trading basket, which allows you to trade anything you own,” the startup’s founder, Bastian Lehmann, told TechCrunch. Lehmann previously founded Postmates.
“It doesn’t have to be from the same brand, it doesn’t even have to be a related product,” he said. “And then we do what we’ve been doing for the last year, we immediately recognize the value of the item you no longer need, and you can then buy things at a discount because we take your trade-in value into account.”
Customers can trade in an old Samsung Galaxy for a discount on an iPad, an Apple HomePod mini for a Nintendo Switch, or an iPhone for a Nothing phone. Customers can also make a purchase without an exchange.
TipTop processes payments via Stripe and handles deliveries. Unlike platforms like eBay and Facebook Marketplace, consumers do not buy products on TipTop from other consumers, as the devices are owned by the startup itself.
Lehmann said that next month, the startup will launch a new product that will give merchants the ability to run direct trading programs.
To date, TipTop has raised $23 million in Series A funding from investors including Andreessen Horowitz (on the board is Marc Andreessen), as well as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, AngelList co-founder Naval Ravikant and member of Board of Directors of Pinterest, Coinbase and DoorDash, Gokul Rajaram.
