Saily

What Saily does

Saily was a Silicon Valley-based mobile marketplace startup that operated a consumer app for buying and selling preloved (used) items, positioning itself as a safer, more accessible alternative to desktop-era classifieds platforms like Craigslist. Founded around 2016 and headquartered in San Francisco, the company built a mobile-native peer-to-peer marketplace application distributed through the iOS App Store and Google Play, targeting individual consumers seeking to declutter their homes or find second-hand goods at lower prices. The platform addressed pain points around the friction of listing items, the social awkwardness of meeting strangers, and the trust deficits inherent in anonymous classifieds.

The company's go-to-market relied primarily on App Store featuring and earned media coverage, including mentions in Bloomberg and major tech publications, to drive organic user acquisition, accumulating hundreds of thousands of users over approximately four years of independent operation. Saily's revenue model was built on marketplace transaction fees, with a horizontal consumer segmentation approach targeting general individuals selling unused household items, clothing, and electronics. The technology stack was a standard mobile marketplace application with proprietary user-facing listing and transaction flows, and the company maintained a modest team of 1-10 employees. Marketing channels included App Store optimization, PR/earned media, and content marketing through a company blog with selling guides and app comparisons.

Despite organic consumer adoption, Saily was unable to achieve the scale required to compete independently in the US resale market and was acquired by Mercari, a Japanese peer-to-peer marketplace company, in 2020. Following the acquisition, the Saily founding team transitioned to develop Flyp, a concierge-style clothing resale app where professional sellers (Pros) handle listings and transactions on behalf of users for a fee. The original Saily marketplace app ceased independent operations post-acquisition, and the entity now operates as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mercari with its team focused on Flyp.

Name

Saily

Legal name

Saily, Inc.

Website

https://saily.co

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Acquired

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Saily operated a mobile marketplace app for buying and selling preloved items, serving individual US consumers. Founded in Silicon Valley around 2016, it was acquired by Mercari in 2020; the team subsequently built Flyp, a concierge clothing resale app.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Personnel, Operations

Revenue model

1. Marketplace Transaction Fees: As a peer-to-peer resale marketplace, Saily likely generates revenue through transaction fees on sales, similar to other consumer marketplace models.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Saily operated a mobile marketplace application that enabled individual users to buy and sell preloved or unused items such as clothing, electronics, and household goods. The app was positioned as a safer, easier-to-use mobile-native alternative to desktop classifieds like Craigslist, designed to simplify listing and remove the friction of meeting strangers. Following its 2020 acquisition by Mercari, the Saily team transitioned to build Flyp, a concierge resale app where professional sellers (Pros) handle the listing and sale of users' clothing on their behalf.

Product overview

Saily operated as a unified mobile marketplace app for buying and selling preloved items. The company's product portfolio included Saily (the core marketplace application) and Flyp (a sub-brand clothing resale service where professional sellers handle the selling process for users). Following acquisition by Mercari, the Saily team transitioned to focus development efforts on Flyp.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Saily A mobile marketplace app enabling individual consumers to buy and sell preloved or unused items (clothing, electronics, household goods). The platform simplifies the listing process and provides a safer environment than anonymous classifieds for peer-to-peer resale.
• Flyp A clothing resale app where professional sellers (Pros) sell users' clothes on their behalf, handling the listing and selling process for a fee. Targeted at consumers who want to declutter clothing without managing the sales process themselves.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• NordVPNminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 12 March 2026Saily collaborated with NordVPN on a study examining the proliferation of 'dark web travel agencies' that resell travel services purchased with stolen credit cards. The study found these illicit services offer 40-60% discounts on flights and hotels, with hotel reservations (18.2%) and flights (13%) being most popular.
• MercaricoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSaily merged with/was acquired by Mercari, a Japanese peer-to-peer marketplace company that achieved a $1.2 billion IPO on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2018. Following the acquisition, the Saily team continued working on resale innovation, ultimately creating Flyp.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• Depop: Peer-to-peer fashion resale marketplace popular with younger demographics, owned by Etsy. Comparable mobile-first resale experience and seller/buyer dynamic that Saily targeted in the preloved apparel category.
• OfferUp: Mobile-first local marketplace for buying and selling used goods, formed through the merger of OfferUp and letgo. Directly competes with Saily's original horizontal preloved marketplace positioning in the US.
• Flyp: The current product that the Saily team built and operates under Mercari. A clothing resale app where professional 'Pros' sell on behalf of users — the most direct representation of the Saily team's evolved product and go-to-market motion.
• Vinted: European C2C marketplace focused on second-hand fashion, with a mobile-first model. Comparable in core use case (selling preloved clothing and accessories) and target user (individual consumers) — a relevant international benchmark for Flyp's model.
• Poshmark: Mobile-first social marketplace for buying and selling clothing and accessories, now owned by Naver. Closely comparable to Saily in C2C resale model, mobile UX, and preloved apparel focus — directly relevant for evaluating Flyp's competitive positioning.
• Mercari: Parent company and acquirer of Saily. Mercari operates the largest C2C marketplace in Japan and is the most direct peer in peer-to-peer resale, sharing Saily's core transactional model and target use case (selling unused personal items).

Broad incumbents

• Facebook Marketplace: Meta's embedded C2C marketplace is the dominant horizontal peer-to-peer resale platform in the US, leveraging Facebook's social graph. Its scale and zero-friction distribution are the structural barriers Saily's team cited as motivation to join Mercari.
• eBay: Established online marketplace with significant preloved goods volume. While broader in scope, eBay remains a benchmark incumbent in the C2C resale category and a long-standing substitute for Saily's offering.

Emerging players

• The RealReal: Authenticated luxury consignment marketplace. Comparable to Flyp's concierge approach in that it handles selling on behalf of consignors, but focused on the high-end luxury segment — a useful benchmark for consignment-style resale economics.
• ThredUp: Online consignment and thrift store specializing in second-hand clothing. While ThredUp is more of a managed marketplace than peer-to-peer, it competes for the same supply of preloved apparel that Saily/Flyp targets and represents the 'managed resale' alternative.

Market position

Strengths3 records

Weaknesses3 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks4 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/sailyapp

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Saily