Irish start-up So Sell It, which allows users to buy, swap, sell and get direct offers for their goods online, has expanded its operations into the UK.

Founded by Glen Reid, Ed Byrne and David Byrne, the site sells everything from wireless keyboards to specialised mountain bikes to costume jewellery and cars.

“On high-end electronic devices we will give the seller an instant offer price. We have a built in valuation model behind our platform. They can accept that offer, but if they don’t want to, they can still sell the item on our site and the ad is free,” Reid said.

"We are working with the Irish Cancer Society for October and November. We will donate 10 cent for every ad uploaded, and it is free for users to upload an ad," he added.

Since its launch 11 weeks ago, the Irish site has grown to 3,500 unique page views every day.

Reid said the company will be launching in other English speaking jurisdictions in the run up to Christmas.

“We will most likely launch in South Africa after the UK, as the US market is too big for us right now.”

“It was very important from an external investment point of view that we do what we said we were going to do, ie get into other jurisdictions quickly. We have this expanded into the UK,” he added.

The company was funded through a combination of private investors and peer-to-peer lending site Moneybush.net.

“We have to pay them [the Moneybush investors] back with interest, but we didn’t have to give equity. We didn’t want to give away large amounts of equity in the company. It took less than six weeks from the time we applied to Moneybush to getting the money in our bank account,” Reid said.

The company doesn’t charge users to place an ad on the site, nor does it take a commission. Reid said it makes money from external advertising, through impressions on the trading site.

The company currently has eight employees but expects to increase its workforce to 25 within the next two years.