Dela raises $720,000 seed round to strip scams out of secondhand sales
What's the deal? Sydney payments startup DelaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has raised A$1 million (about $720,000) in a seed round to prevent scams in marketplace sales of secondhand goods. The funding for founder Meg van der Velde came from an unnamed private investor and will go towards product development.
What does it do? Dela handles transactions for items advertised on platforms such as Facebook MarketplaceDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and GumtreeDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, keeping payments out of sellers' hands until buyers receive their goods. Buyers pay through the app, with Stripe processing the funds, and have 24 hours after delivery to check the item before payment is released.
Why now? Van der Velde built Dela after being scammed selling a laptop. A supposed buyer sent a fake payment receipt, claimed to have overpaid, then requested a refund; a supposed courier collected the laptop and demanded fuel money to return it.
The buyer and driver, she says, were the same person. "I lost the laptop, I never got paid for it, and I paid him twice on top of that. In one afternoon," she said.
How it works: Sellers undergo identity checks through Stripe and can confirm payment before handing over an item. Users book a courier in the app, arrange their own shipping, or meet in person, with delivery tracking and support included.
The service is free for sellers. Buyers pay $5 for items worth up to $100, or $5 plus 3.5% of the value above that.
What's the endgame? Dela launched earlier this year on Apple and AndroidDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. "Our goal is to make Dela the default payments and shipping app for peer-to-peer deals, so people can buy and sell without the stress," van der Velde said.
The signal: The raise sits in the mid-range for early-stage deals, but it points to a growing niche: building trust infrastructure into informal peer-to-peer commerce, where escrow and identity checks are stepping in to fill gaps left by open marketplaces.
Read more: startupdaily.net
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
