“Can a refurbished-electronics marketplace become the dominant global platform for sustainable tech consumption by embedding finance, insurance, and AI-driven quality assurance throughout the buyer and seller journey?”
Founded in 2014 as a pure-play marketplace for refurbished electronics, Back Market grew rapidly by aggregating professional refurbishers and offering consumers quality-guaranteed used devices at a significant discount to new. After raising over $1B from VCs through 2021-2022, the company faced the funding downturn and restructured — cutting headcount and pausing expansion — before pivoting to a profitability-first model. The embedded finance angle emerged progressively: seller cash-flow acceleration via Storfund/BackFunds (2021), embedded device protection with bolt and bolttech (2024), and multi-market BNPL checkout options (Klarna, Affirm, Oney, PayPal, Scalapay, Afterpay). The company now positions itself as a sustainable tech ecosystem rather than a simple resale channel.
Back Market's lending and capital products are provided by Storfund.
Back Market was founded by Thibaud Hug de Larauze and is founded in 2014, headquartered in Paris, France.
Back Market has raised $1B+ in total (latest round: Later Stage VC).
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Back Market and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.