Swappie raises $40m and announces Irish expansion plans

16 Jun 2020

Image: © kireewongfoto/Stock.adobe.com

Finnish smartphone refurbishment marketplace Swappie has raised $40m, which the company will use to launch its services in Ireland.

Today (16 June), Helsinki-based start-up Swappie announced that it has raised $40.6m in Series B funding.

Investors in the round include Tesi, Lifeline Ventures, Reaktor Ventures and Inventure, which all participated in the firm’s Series A round in 2019. The latest investment brings the total raised by Swappie to $48m.

The start-up, which has developed an end-to-end online marketplace for buying and selling refurbished smartphones, said that it now plans to launch in Ireland, Germany, Portugal and the Netherlands.

Expansion plans

Founded in 2016 by Sami Marttinen and Jiri Heinonen, Swappie aims to provide consumers with a more affordable and environmentally friendly way to upgrade their phones.

On the back of its expansion, Swappie said that it will now provide Irish consumers with high-quality refurbished devices for up to 40pc less than the price of a new device. Phones sold on the platform also come with a warranty.

It expects that consumers in Ireland will be able to use Swappie and sell devices to the start-up from mid-August.

Marttinen, who is CEO of Swappie, said: “As Irish consumers become more aware of the environmental impact that their purchasing decisions have, we expect to see far greater demand for high-quality refurbished smartphones. Because we refurbish every device ourselves, in our own factory, we control the whole value chain.”

“We’ve already seen fantastic demand for Swappie and we are thrilled to be announcing today’s investment, which will allow us to accelerate our international expansion and make the circular smartphone economy truly mainstream in Ireland and across Europe.”

Swappie also plans to use the funding to expand its team. The company grew from a team of two in 2017 to a workforce of more than 260 people from around 31 different countries in three years. Swappie is now planning to hire another 400 people across Europe in the next 12 months.

Kelly Earley was a journalist with Silicon Republic

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