Cashify has built a ₹1,000-crore business out of something most people simply want to get rid of – their old phones.

The pitch is simple. Sell your used device, get a price, get paid. Or buy a refurbished phone without paying the price of a new one.

But look beyond the pitch and another number stands out.

93.

That is the number of Cashify complaints and reviews currently listed on ConsumerComplaints.in. The complaints cover delayed payments, refund problems, disputed valuations, defective refurbished phones, warranty issues, pickup disputes and problems with customer support.

And these are not all complaints from the same year or about the same thing.

One 2026 complaint alleges that Cashify collected a Samsung Galaxy S20+ but failed to make the promised payment despite repeated attempts to contact the company. An August 2025 complaint alleges that a phone’s valuation was cut after pickup when a technician pointed to defects the customer disputed.

There are older complaints alleging delayed refunds, problems with refurbished phones, repeated repair or replacement issues and difficulty getting Cashify to resolve them.

93 complaints are still 93 complaints.

And when the same themes keep showing up – money delayed, valuations disputed, phones failing, warranties contested and customers chasing support – it raises a fairly basic question.

Is this just the inevitable mess that comes with running a large used-phone business, or is there something more fundamental going wrong between Cashify’s promise and the customer’s experience?

The Price Cashify Quotes May Not Be The Price You Get

And then there is the valuation.

Cashify’s model begins with a number. You enter your phone details, answer a few questions about its condition and get an estimated price. Simple enough.

The problem starts when that number changes.

Multiple customer complaints allege that the price quoted online was reduced after the phone was physically inspected. In some cases, customers say the pickup executive identified defects that they either did not agree existed or believed were being used to justify a lower offer.

One March 2025 App Store review, for example, alleges that Cashify initially quoted one amount and then reduced it after inspection, with the customer calling the practice unethical. A separate April 2025 Reddit complaint involving a Samsung S22 Ultra alleges that an initial valuation of ₹34,000 was reduced to ₹27,000 after the pickup agent cited defects the customer disputed.

Again, these are customer allegations. They do not establish that Cashify routinely manipulates valuations. But the complaint is specific enough to matter. The price on the screen is not necessarily the price at the doorstep.

And for a business that buys phones at scale, that difference matters. The entire transaction depends on what the device is finally valued at after someone from Cashify gets their hands on it.

That leaves a fairly straightforward question hanging over the model: How much of the price Cashify promises is actually a price – and how much is simply an opening quote?

When The Phone Is Sold, Where Is The Money?

The valuation is only the first part of the transaction.

The next is getting paid. And here too, Cashify has attracted complaints.

Several customers have alleged that after handing over their phones, the payment did not arrive within the timeline they were promised. Others say refunds for cancelled or returned orders took longer than expected, with customers having to repeatedly contact support to find out where their money was.

A June 2023 complaint alleges that Cashify collected a phone after reducing its price and promised payment within two hours. The customer claimed that four days later, the money had still not arrived. Another complaint from July that year alleges that a returned phone was supposed to trigger a refund within 48 hours, but the customer was still waiting five days later.

There was also a December 2023 complaint involving a cancelled iPhone order where the customer alleged that the promised refund had not arrived within the stated timeframe.

They are individual customer accounts, and at least one older complaint in this category was eventually marked resolved. But the issue keeps appearing in different forms.

The phone has been collected. The transaction is supposed to be over. The customer is still waiting for the money. For a business built around instant valuations and the promise of convenience, delays at the point where money changes hands are not a trivial detail.

They go straight to the one thing the model cannot afford to lose: trust.

Then There Are The Phones Cashify Sells

Selling your old phone to Cashify is only half the business. Cashify also takes those devices, refurbishes them and puts them back on the market.

And that creates a second set of complaints.

Customers have alleged problems with refurbished phones ranging from battery and display issues to repeated repairs, replacements and warranty disputes. Some say problems appeared soon after purchase. Others allege that getting the device repaired or replaced was far more difficult than buying it in the first place.

Recent user-generated complaints include a July 2026 Reddit post from a customer who said a warranty dispute involving a Redmi Note 9 Pro had remained unresolved for roughly 64 days. Another July 2026 post described a prolonged dispute over a Motorola Edge 30 Pro, including alleged repair delays and concerns over a replacement display.

There are similar complaints involving refurbished iPhones, including allegations about battery health and replacement components. None of these accounts establishes that Cashify systematically sells defective devices. Reddit posts and customer reviews are not evidence of that.

But they raise a question that matters far more as Cashify gets bigger. How good is the refurbishment machine behind the brand?

Because Cashify’s business model depends on taking millions of used devices, deciding what they are worth, repairing them where necessary and selling them to someone else.

The first customer gives Cashify a phone. The second customer gives Cashify money for that phone. If something goes wrong in between, the problem doesn’t disappear. It simply moves to the next customer.

The Complaints Do Not Stop At The Phone

The complaints around Cashify are not confined to one platform or one type of customer.

There are complaints on consumer portals. There are negative reviews on the App Store. There are Reddit posts describing problems with valuations, refunds, repairs and warranties. The details vary, but some of the themes remain remarkably similar.

That matters because a handful of angry reviews can be dismissed as just that – angry reviews. But a complaint appearing repeatedly across different platforms is harder to wave away.

At the same time, Cashify’s overall customer rating tells a different story. Its iOS app carries a 4.5/5 rating from roughly 68,000 ratings. So this is clearly not a business where every customer walks away unhappy.

That is an important distinction. The question is not whether Cashify has unhappy customers. Every large consumer business does. 

The question is whether the recurring complaints point to particular weak spots in the way Cashify operates – from the initial valuation and payment to refurbishment, repairs and after-sales support.

Because when the same complaints keep appearing at different points of the customer journey, they stop being just isolated bad experiences. They become something worth examining.

Some Of Those Complaints Reached Consumer Courts

Online complaints are one thing. A consumer commission finding against a company is another. And Cashify has faced both.

In July 2024, the Bengaluru District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission found deficiency in service and unfair trade practice in a dispute involving a refurbished Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 sold by Cashify. The commission directed Cashify to either replace the phone or refund ₹60,615 with 6% annual interest, along with ₹3,000 towards litigation expenses. The matter was decided ex parte.

There are other consumer proceedings too.

In another case, a consumer commission dealt with a dispute involving a Cashify Retail Store Partner over the transfer of ₹3,390 in sale proceeds to an incorrect UPI account. The complaint was allowed in August 2025.

The research also turns up other consumer proceedings involving Cashify entities and its repair/refurbishment operations. But there is an important distinction here.

A consumer complaint is an allegation. A consumer commission order is a legal finding.

And there is another qualification: the adverse orders identified in the research were ex parte. That means the proceedings were decided without a full defence being tested in the usual way. They are still judicial orders, but they should not be presented as though every allegation in them was conclusively established after a contested trial.

Still, the pattern is difficult to completely ignore. Customers are complaining online about valuations, refunds, defective devices and warranties. Some of those disputes have subsequently reached consumer courts. And that takes the Cashify customer story beyond a collection of angry internet reviews.

Then There Is The 2019 Criminal Case

The consumer complaints are one part of Cashify’s record. There is also a much more serious matter that goes back to 2019.

In Bengaluru, police registered Crime No. 114/2019 under Sections 392 and 411 of the Indian Penal Code in connection with allegations involving stolen mobile phones. The case named Manak Waste Management Private Limited, the corporate entity associated with Cashify at the time.

The allegations were not limited to a customer dispute.

The police investigation reportedly led to the arrest of three people, including Waseem Rehman, who was described as a Cashify employee. Prathap Reddy, who was described in the case material as a Cashify director/partner, was also reported as absconding at the time. A charge-sheet was subsequently filed in 2020, leading to CC No. 8012/2020 before the Bengaluru court.

The 2019 Case Was Not The Only Legal Trouble

The stolen-phone case is the most serious item in the record, but it is not the only legal matter surrounding Cashify and entities connected to its operations.

There is also a Haryana prosecution involving Manak Waste Management, with proceedings under the Factories Act. The matter dates back several years and remains part of the company’s wider legal record.

Then there is a separate dispute involving Retail Fiesta, a company that had a business relationship with Cashify around refurbished-device operations. The matter went into arbitration, with Retail Fiesta reportedly seeking recovery of around ₹36.24 lakh in unpaid invoices, while the broader claim was reported at approximately ₹92.54 lakh. The important qualification is that this is an unadjudicated claim. There is no final finding here that Cashify owed the amount alleged.

There is also a tax-related litigation lead involving an entity associated with Cashify’s business ecosystem.

Taken together, they form part of the public record around a company that is now preparing to make the jump from startup to public-market business.

And that is why these matters are worth examining – not because every legal dispute proves something about Cashify, but because investors and customers eventually have to look at the entire record, not just the growth numbers.

But What We Could Not Find Matters Too

And now comes the more interesting question: If Cashify has built a ₹1,000-crore business despite all of this, how is the business actually doing?

Now step away from the complaints for a moment.

Because Cashify is not some struggling startup trying to keep the lights on. The company has built a sizeable business around buying, refurbishing and reselling used devices, and its financial numbers show just how far it has come.

Cashify’s revenue crossed the ₹1,000-crore mark in FY25, reaching roughly ₹1,096 crore. More importantly, the company appears to have sharply reduced its losses. Its net loss fell to around ₹10 crore in FY25, from roughly ₹53 crore the year before.

That is a significant improvement.

The company was also reportedly targeting ₹1,500–1,600 crore in revenue and ₹20–30 crore in profit for FY26. But those figures are projections, not reported results, so they should not be treated as numbers Cashify has already delivered.

That distinction matters because Cashify is now moving into a very different phase. It has gone from startup growth to a business where profitability actually matters. And the numbers suggest that the company is getting closer.

But ₹1,000 crore of revenue does not automatically mean ₹1,000 crore of healthy business.

Cashify has to buy devices, inspect them, collect them, repair and refurbish them, maintain stores and service operations, deal with returns and warranties, and then find buyers for those devices.

The business is therefore growing on a large operational machine. And that brings us back to the customer complaints.

If Cashify is going to keep growing at this pace, the question is not whether it can sell more phones. It clearly can. The question is whether it can do everything that comes after the sale – consistently, profitably and without leaving customers chasing the company for answers.

Who Actually Owns Cashify?

Cashify may look like a founder-driven startup from the outside. The ownership table tells a more complicated story.

As of the latest cap-table data available from 2025, NewQuest held around 18.8%, making it the largest individual shareholder. The three founders — Mandeep Manocha, Nakul Kumar and Amit Sethi — collectively held around 15.6%.

Investors as a group held roughly 60.8%, while the employee ESOP pool accounted for another 9.4%. That means the founders no longer control anything close to a majority of the company.

And that matters because Cashify has already raised substantial institutional capital. The business has moved a long way from a startup where the founders’ ownership tells most of the story.

There is now a long list of financial investors sitting behind the company, including names such as Bessemer Venture Partners, Blume Ventures and Olympus Capital Asia.

Then comes the IPO.

Existing investors could potentially use the public listing to sell part of their holdings through an offer-for-sale, depending on how the final issue is structured. So there are really two stories unfolding at the same time.

Cashify is trying to build the next stage of the business. Its early investors are also approaching the point where they can turn years of private investment into public-market value.

That makes the company’s improving financial performance — and the questions around the business itself — considerably more important.

How Much Of India’s Used-Phone Market Does Cashify Really Control?

Cashify’s size is not the only number that needs examining. There is also the company’s reported grip on the market.

Cashify has been described as controlling roughly 90% of India’s organised used-smartphone market. On paper, that is a staggering number. It makes Cashify look less like one player in a crowded recommerce market and more like the market itself.

But there is a catch. What exactly does “organised used-phone market” include?

India’s second-hand phone market is much larger than the transactions that happen through organised companies. A huge volume of used devices changes hands through local dealers, neighbourhood repair shops, informal traders and direct person-to-person sales.

So a 90% share of the organised market does not mean Cashify owns 90% of every used phone transaction in India. That distinction is important.

It also raises another question: how much of Cashify’s apparent dominance comes from the market definition rather than the company’s actual share of the entire used-phone economy?

Cashify clearly has scale. It has built an extensive network around buying, refurbishing and reselling devices, and its presence is far beyond a simple online marketplace.

But before treating the 90% figure as proof that Cashify dominates India’s entire second-hand smartphone market, the underlying definition needs to be understood. Because 90% sounds very different when you know what the other 10% actually represents.

Cashify Is No Longer Just Buying Your Old Phone

The business is a lot bigger than collecting used phones and sending money to their owners.

Cashify sits across the entire cycle.

It buys used devices, inspects them, determines their value, collects them, repairs or refurbishes them where required and then sells them back to consumers. It also operates repair services and has built an offline retail presence around the business.

That matters because every additional step creates another place where things can go wrong.

The phone has to be valued correctly. It has to reach Cashify safely. Its condition has to be assessed. Repairs have to be done properly. Replacement components have to work. The refurbished device has to meet the quality promised to the next buyer. And if something fails, the warranty and customer-service system has to deal with it.

Cashify makes money only if this entire chain works.

And that is also why the complaints around valuations, delayed payments, refurbished phones and warranty disputes matter more than they would for a simple marketplace.

Cashify is not merely connecting a buyer and seller. It is increasingly sitting in the middle of the transaction and taking responsibility for what happens on both sides of it. That is a much harder business to run.

And now Cashify wants to take that business to the public markets.

Cashify Wants To Go Public

And now Cashify is preparing for its next big test.

The company has reportedly appointed ICICI Securities, JM Financial and Nomura as bankers for a proposed IPO that could be worth around ₹1,500–1,800 crore, with a potential listing targeted for early 2027.

The exact structure is still being worked out. It is not yet clear how much will come into the company as fresh capital and how much could be an offer for sale by existing investors.

That distinction matters. A fresh issue means Cashify is raising money to put back into the business. An offer for sale means existing shareholders are selling some of their stake.

And Cashify has plenty of institutional shareholders who have been invested for years. So the IPO is not simply a story about a growing startup looking for more money. It is also potentially the point where some early investors get an opportunity to realise their investment.

Which brings the entire story back to where we started.

Cashify has built a ₹1,000-crore-plus business. Its losses have fallen sharply. It claims a dominant position in the organised used-phone market. It has raised substantial institutional capital.

Now it wants public investors to buy into the story.

But public investors will not just look at revenue and market share. They will look at margins. They will look at the ownership structure. They will look at the business model.

And eventually, they will look at the same thing customers have been complaining about for years: What happens when the phone changes hands?

So, Is Cashify Actually Doing Well?

On the face of it, yes.

Cashify has grown into a ₹1,000-crore-plus business. Its losses have fallen sharply. It has attracted major institutional investors. It claims a dominant position in the organised used-phone market. And it is now preparing for an IPO.

But the customer record makes the picture less comfortable.

There are 93 complaints on one consumer portal alone. Customers across platforms have raised similar issues around valuations, delayed payments, refunds, refurbished phones and warranties. Some disputes have reached consumer commissions, with adverse orders against Cashify or entities operating under its retail network.

Then there is the older criminal case involving its former corporate entity, along with other legal and commercial disputes.

None of that means Cashify is a bad business. And it certainly does not prove the more extreme allegations that circulate online. But it does mean the company’s growth story cannot be judged by revenue alone.

Because Cashify’s real product is not the phone. It is the promise that the transaction will be easy, the price will be fair, the refurbished device will work and, if something goes wrong, someone will actually fix it.

That promise is now being tested at a much larger scale.

And with an IPO on the horizon, Cashify will soon have to answer those questions not just to customers, but to public investors.

The Real Question Is What Happens Underneath The Growth

Cashify’s numbers show a company that has clearly scaled. The complaints show a company whose customer experience deserves a closer look.

Those two things can exist at the same time. A business handling a huge volume of used devices will inevitably have unhappy customers. Some transactions will go wrong. Some phones will fail. Some refunds will be delayed. Some valuations will be disputed.

But scale also removes the easy excuse.

When the same categories of complaints keep appearing – valuation cuts, delayed payments, refunds, refurbished-device problems and warranty disputes – the company has to show that these are exceptions rather than symptoms of how the machine operates.

That is particularly important because Cashify is no longer a small startup experimenting with a new idea. It is a ₹1,000-crore-plus business, backed by institutional investors, claiming a dominant position in its market and preparing to approach public investors.

So the question is no longer simply whether Cashify can sell more phones. It is whether Cashify can scale trust as quickly as it has scaled revenue. Because that may ultimately be the difference between a successful recommerce company and a very large business with very large customer-service problems.

Cashify Has More To Prove Than Just Growth

Cashify has already proved that there is a huge business in India’s used-phone market.

It has built the network. It has attracted the capital. It has crossed ₹1,000 crore in revenue. It has brought its losses down sharply. It has built a recognised consumer brand and is now looking towards the public markets.

But the next phase will be harder. Growth can hide a lot of things. Profitability exposes them.

If Cashify wants to convince public investors that it deserves a serious valuation, it will have to show that its margins can improve without compromising the customer experience, that its refurbishment operation can work consistently at scale and that the complaints around valuations, payments, refunds and warranties are not signs of deeper operational problems.

Because eventually, the question for Cashify will be brutally simple:

Can it turn India’s discarded phones into a genuinely durable business – or is it simply getting very good at moving a very large number of devices through a complicated system?

The IPO Will Put All Of This Under A Different Kind Of Scrutiny

For now, Cashify can point to growth.

It can point to revenue. It can point to falling losses. It can point to its investor base, its market position and the thousands of customers who appear to have had no problem using the platform.

An IPO changes the equation. Once a company asks public investors to put their money into the business, the questions get harder.

How much does it really make on every device? How much does refurbishment cost? How often do devices come back? What does customer acquisition cost? How expensive are warranties and repairs? How much working capital does the business need? And how much of the reported growth actually turns into cash?

The customer complaints matter here because they are not just about customer satisfaction. They can point towards operating costs, returns, warranty obligations, refunds and reputational risk – all things that can eventually show up in the economics of the business.

Cashify’s next challenge, therefore, is not simply convincing people to sell their old phones. It is proving that the machine behind those transactions is efficient enough, profitable enough and reliable enough to deserve public-market money.

And that is a much tougher sell.

The Last Bit, 

Cashify’s story is not a simple one.

There is a large and growing business here. Revenue has crossed ₹1,000 crore. Losses have narrowed sharply. Institutional investors have backed the company. Its position in organised used-phone commerce is significant. And an IPO could be the next big step.

But the customer side of the business raises questions that growth numbers alone cannot answer. It is that Cashify is getting too big for its customer problems to be dismissed as noise.

The company has already proved that Indians will trust it with their old phones. Now, as it moves towards the public markets, it has to prove something harder: that the business built around that trust is strong enough to keep it.