{"id":847610,"date":"2026-01-12T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=847610"},"modified":"2026-01-12T15:07:03","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T13:07:03","slug":"the-european-company-taking-on-facebook-marketplace-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/847610\/the-european-company-taking-on-facebook-marketplace-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"The European company taking on Facebook Marketplace in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Estonia-based Yaga has steadily expanded its presence in South Africa, competing with Facebook Marketplace and Gumtree. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yaga offers secure and accessible payment and shipping options, with a primary draw being the built-in shipping options, including Pudo, Paxi, PostNet-to-PostNet, and Aramex. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there are no selling fees, buyers will pay an additional ‘buyer protection fee,’ which offers refunds for misrepresented items and fraud protection through an escrow system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An escrow is a contractual arrangement in which a third party receives and disburses money or goods on behalf of the transacting parties. Disbursement is contingent upon the conditions agreed upon by the parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The platform’s products are typically 50% to 80% cheaper than buying the same products new. The localised logistics also protect buyers and sellers, with fraudsters plentiful in South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company was founded by Aune Aunapuu in Estonia, coming up with the idea for Yaga after working as an environmental consultant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking with our sister publication MyBroadband<\/a>, Aunapuu said that she founded Yaga while on maternity leave. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking to sell a baby stroller, she noticed that all second-hand marketplaces lacked payment and shipping options. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yaga was thus born, which allows users to build their own storefronts. The platform also looks to reduce fashion waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is, however, not isolated to fashion, with other products, including second-hand tech, also sold across storefronts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Estonia and South Africa may seem far apart, Yaga’s decision to establish a presence in South Africa made sense for its founders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Estonia having a population of only 1 million, Yaga began searching for other markets, as the capital required to start the company would be wasted on a market that small. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to this, the Yaga team looked globally for a larger market, which took into account Internet penetration, perception of second-hand goods, and population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Africa was high on the list, given that it is in the same time zone as Estonia. South Africa was elected due to its large English-speaking population and its history as a gateway to the continent of Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While travelling across South Africa, Aunapuu noted a high number of thrift stores and thrift markets, believing that sellers also need an app to sell goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The COVID-19 pandemic also provided a boost for the company, despite its launch in South Africa only in January 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all essential services shut down, South Africans were forced online. The company then began to see an increase in transactions, and influencers started expanding the platform’s reach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Millions in funding<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>
Aune Aunapuu, CEO and founder of Yaga<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Given the success in South Africa, Yaga announced its plan to expand across Africa in 2024, with expansions planned for Kenya and Nigeria. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company also received a boost after raising \u20ac4 million (about R80 million) in a pre-Series A global funding round in late 2025. This took the company’s funding to \u20ac7.2 million (R135 million) since its founding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company secured the latest funding from Specialist VC, Trind Ventures, Startup Wise Guys, a group of angel investors and H&M Group Ventures, which is a unit of the Swedish retail giant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe strongly believe in the team behind Yaga, which has clearly shown capabilities to scale its marketplace for pre-loved fashion,\u201d says Nanna Andersen from the H&M Group. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTheir presence on the African continent is also a strong complement to H&M Group\u2019s existing second-hand initiatives in other parts of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yaga plans to become the largest marketplace for second-hand fashion in Africa and the Middle East. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yaga said that it has 2 million users, with over 6 million items sold since its launch in 2017. Sellers have earned over \u20ac80 million (R1.5 billion) on the platform, according to its website. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yaga is slowly growing in South Africa’s e-commerce space, with the Estonia-based company getting millions in funding. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":847624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[45,24477,20142],"class_list":["post-847610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-facebook","tag-hm-group","tag-yaga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847610"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":847689,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847610\/revisions\/847689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}