Dallas Morning News
Originally Posted: January 26, 2016
A garage sale on your smartphone is a growing business that was made for mobile apps. 5miles, a Dallas and Beijing-based company, is working to become a major player in the local classified advertising business that’s been dominated online for 20 years by Craigslist.
The 1-year-old mobile marketplace app has attracted $30 million in new investments from a group of venture capital funds that focuses on companies with U.S. and Chinese ties. The group includes funds Blue Lake, IDG, Morningside and SIG-China and individuals who have worked with or invested in Alibaba, China’s largest e-commerce company, and eBay.
When deciding where to locate 5miles’ U.S. headquarters, founder Lucas Lu said he decided on Dallas, where he lived for several years while he completed a doctorate in physics from Southern Methodist University in 2005. Lu has an impressive e-commerce background with leadership experience at Alibaba, BlogDrive.com and LightInTheBox, where he was chief technology officer.
In Dallas, 5miles has about a dozen employees and another 30 are in Beijing where most of the engineering and programming staff is located. READ MORE