Zhuanzhuan Group, an online used-goods trading platform affiliated to Chinese online classifieds marketplace 58.com, has acquired luxury resale platform Plum, also known as Hongbulin.
The acquisition helps Zhuanzhuan Group, which previously injected $100 million into Plum through a Series C funding round in November 2022, tap into the country’s burgeoning luxury resale market, according to a release shared by Plum on Monday.
Co-founded by Xu Wei — who previously served a stint as investment director at Chinese VC firm Sinovation Ventures — in 2017, Plum operates in both the consumer-to-business-to-consumer (C2B2C) and business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) models. The Beijing-based firm enables consumers to buy used luxury goods and provides businesses and merchants a one-stop e-commerce solution.
Xu will no longer serve as Plum’s CEO post-acquisition. Xu will take over the position of consultant to help Plum through the transition period; while Hu Weikun, Zhuanzhuan’s co-founder and COO, will be also serving as Plum’s new CEO.
Zhuanzhuan Group CEO Huang Wei said in the release that Plum has carved out its niche in authenticating pre-owned luxury goods since its establishment. Going forward, Plum will continue to operate independently from Zhuanzhuan.
Before the Series C round in 2022, Plum snapped ‘tens of millions of US dollars’ in a Series B2 round from “a notable USD-denominated FOF”, Recruit, MPC (previously known as Matrix Partners China), Qiming Venture Partners, and Unity Ventures in December 2020.
Zhuanzhuan, as well as Alibaba Group’s Xianyu, have emerged to be the two most popular second-hand goods online marketplaces in China, contributing to a total of 90.9% of the market share, according to a report published by Chinese state-owned securities brokerage firm Shenwan Hongyuan.
