The effective pre-seed funding round of Circle, a full-stack platform with Artificial Intelligence (AI) to transform the Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) arena. Circle declared its capability to raise ₹3.4 crore in its pre-seed round and that it could attract capital from well-known investors who recognize the potential of the idea of building a safe and efficient marketplace to sell and purchase used goods. This substantial capital inflow will enhance the technology base of the platform as well as speed up its growth strategies with an initial focus on major urban markets.
Capital infusion and core offering
The funding round was led by Titan Capital, a reputable venture capital firm with the involvement of Myntra co-founder Raveen Sastry. The successful completion of this pre-seed round will be a milestone first step towards the company and offer it the resources needed to develop its proprietary technology and implement its initial growth strategy.
Circle is based on its own proprietary AI stack, and the recently acquired capital will be used wisely to strengthen this technological base. The funding will be specifically allocated to upgrading and increasing the important AI characteristics that will directly benefit the pain points of both buyers and sellers in the C2C market. Due to such advanced technology, Circle intends to streamline the experience of conducting transactions in pre-owned goods, which will move it closer to the reliability and efficiency of primary e-commerce platforms.
The AI stack of Circle has three key elements that will undergo specific investment and improvement. The former is Guided Pricing, which is a smart mechanism that provides sellers with data-driven pricing suggestions. This removes the element of guesswork amongst sellers and provides the products with accurate, competitive, and realistic market prices, thus increasing chances of a fast and fair transaction.
Automated Condition Grading is the second feature of the core that is essential in verification and quality assessment. This AI-based grading system simplifies the level of assessing the actual state of a product, minimizing conflicts and fostering trust among the parties that transact business. The third important feature is Catalog Matching, which provides accuracy and completeness of the product information on the site, eliminating the problem of fake or deceptive posts.
Vision and operational design
Circle was founded in 2025 by its two co-founders, Ankit Misra and Chirag Kataruka, with a distinct objective of adding order and predictability to the C2C market. The short-term plan of operation of the enterprise is two-fold after the successful funding round. The platform will focus its early product dealings on two major segments, namely, electronics and household. These segments are defined by high volumes of transactions in the used goods market but are also severely impacted by verification and trust problems, and are a perfect target for an AI-based solution by Circle.
The first attempts of the company are geographically focused on intensifying its presence in Bengaluru, a busy tech-related hub, where it initially started its operations. In the future, Circle has laid out ambitious expansion strategies, and according to the company, it plans to expand to other cities by the year 2026. This will be a measured strategy that will enable the company to master its full-stack model and AI capabilities in a core market before bringing the operation to India on a large scale.
The operational design of Circle is a full-stack design uniquely created to solve the old issues that have consistently affected the used goods market, which include: uncertainty, scams, and coordination problems. The proprietary AI system in the platform is charged with the responsibility of checking the product listing so that what a customer perceives is what they get in the end.
The site processes safe money transfers, both keeping the funds of the buyer and the goods of the seller safe until the purchase has been finalized. Circle also handles doorstep logistics, eliminating the frequently messy process of coordinating delivery and pickup between private individuals.
Although new, Circle has already shown a good initial momentum in its launch market of Bengaluru. With its soft launch in August 2025, the platform has been able to onboard a large number of users, with more than 17,000 users.
The pre-owned goods market in India is estimated to be ₹1.6 lakh crore. Though the valuation is huge, the user experience is still greatly affected by the problem of fake listings, incomplete data, and protection that is in serious need among the sellers and buyers. Circle is looking to fill this gap and target the more than 70 million Indians who are involved in used goods transactions every month.
Conclusion
The effective completion of a ₹3.4 crore pre-seed funding round by Circle, led by Titan Capital and with Myntra co-founder Raveen Sastry as its lead, shows a clear indication of its full-stack, AI-focused model. Circle, with intentions to expand further in Bengaluru in the electronics and household segments before going national in 2026, is well-positioned to tap into the value of the 1.6 lakh crore Indian used goods market. The initial momentum of the platform, with more than 17,000 users since August 2025, proves that the market has a dire need to find a credible solution that would enable an e-commerce-like experience and create a major disruption in the future of consumer-to-consumer transactions.
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