Used device marketplace Refurbed closes $54m Series B round

5 Aug 2021

Image: Refurbed

The funding will go towards the start-up’s goal of becoming ‘the Amazon for refurbished products in Europe’.

Refurbed, the Vienna-based start-up that has developed an online marketplace for refurbished electronics, has closed a $54m funding round led by returning investors Evli Growth Partners and Almaz Capital.

Existing investors Speedinvest, Bonsai Partners and All Iron Ventures also returned, and were joined by new names including Hermes GPE, C4 Ventures, SevenVentures, Alpha Associates and Monkfish Equity, which is run by the founders of Trivago.

Refurbed was founded in 2017 by Jürgen Riedl, Kilian Kaminski and Peter Windischhofer and raised €17m in Series A funding in March 2020.

The company launched in Ireland in March of this year and it also operates in Austria, Germany, France, Poland and Italy. It has plans to expand to three other countries by the end of 2021 and said €10m of the freshly raised cash will go towards further growth in Ireland.

The Refurbed marketplace lists more than 11,000 different refurbished devices from 130 different sellers. The company says it has sold more than 800,000 products to date and plants one tree for each sale.

“We founded Refurbed with a mission to get at least one refurbished device into every household in Europe, thus changing the way we consume electronic devices as a society,” Windischhofer said.

“We’re extremely proud of the results we were able to achieve thus far and are set to keep on growing internationally to become the Amazon for refurbished products in Europe.”

The refurbished consumer electronics sector has attracted significant investor interest lately.

One of Refurbed’s big European competitors, Paris-based Back Market, attracted €276m during its Series D round in May and Turkish marketplace EasyCep secured $1m in seed money. The interest extends beyond Europe, as Indian start-up MobiGarage held a pre-Series A round in July. Irish co-founded smartphone-leasing start-up Raylo, which also deals in refurbished phones, raised $11.5m last month too.

Refurbed said refurbished devices can be up to 40pc cheaper than their new counterparts. More than just targeting the budget market, however, these start-ups and their investors are banking on increased consumer consciousness around sustainability, environmental issues and the ethics of materials sourcing to drive future growth in the sector.

Jack Kennedy is a freelance journalist based in Dublin

editorial@siliconrepublic.com