INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
If you’ve tried selling your old smartphone on a refurbishment website, chances are you ended up with a dozen browser tabs comparing
French startup Back Market is taking advantage of this fragmented industry to create a marketplace and aggregate all refurbishers on a
single online platform.The startup just raised $48 million (€41 million)
Groupe Arnault, Eurazeo, Aglaé Ventures and Daphni participated in today’s funding round.Back in May, the company told me that it was
working with over 270 factories
Back Market has generated over $110 million in gross merchandise volume over the past three years
The service is now live in France, Germany, Spain, Belgium and Italy
The company just expanded to the U.S.“Before, refurbishment was just a thing for tech savvy people and tech bloggers,” co-founder and
chief creative officer Vianney Vaute told me
“With Back Market, it becomes a mainstream alternative.”Working with multiple factories is also a competitive advantage when it comes to
pricing, fail rate and quality assurance
Back Market has an overview on the industry and can choose to work with some partners and leave underperforming ones behind
The startup needs to build a brand that consumers can trust.While smartphones and laptops are the most prominent products on the homepage,
Back Market also accepts game consoles, TVs, headphones, coffee machines and more
Back Market also sells Apple products refurbished by Apple itself.Now that smartphones have become a mature market, many customers aren’t
looking for new and shiny devices
Some customers can be perfectly happy with a phone that was released last year or two years ago
It represents an opportunity for Back Market and the refurbishment industry as a whole.
