Dubai-based secondhand e-commerce platform Melltoo has closed a pre-series A round that it will use to expand its operational capacity and scale up charity sales. The amount of funding has not been disclosed.

Founded in 2013,  Melltoo allows users in the UAE to buy and sell pre-owned items online by handling payment and delivery. In 2018, Melltoo introduced Impacter, an initiative that introduced charity sales into the application that allows users to list their used items for sale while donating sale proceeds to a cause of their choosing.

"Our region as a whole is used to buying more than we need and yet lack creative solutions to properly dispose of the excess goods in our companies and homes,” said Mahmoud Adi, partner at Shorooq Investments, one of the investors in the round. “I have used Melltoo to donate my personal belongings ranging from IT to general products and it has been an extremely efficient and smooth process, which is so important.”

Other investors in this round included 500 Startups, KISP Ventures and Khwarizmi Ventures.

“The recent investment allows us to expand Impacter and take it to the next level as we gear up for our series A,” said Morrad Irsane, co-founder of Melltoo.

The company is now preparing for its series A funding round expected to close in the first quarter of 2019 and is also launching the Impacter vertical in Saudi Arabia with support from Khwarizmi Ventures.