Refurbishment specialist RECOMMERCE strengthens its capital through affiliation with major French industrial groups

A pioneer in refurbishment since 2009, Recommerce has decided to join forces with major retail and industrial leaders.

The operation^[1] is being coordinated by United.B (Boulanger, Electrodépot, Hifi, Krëfel etc) alongside Bouygues Telecom and CREADEV (remaining shareholders) and other leading retail and industrial players. The closing is pending the approval of the French Antitrust Authority.

With this Series D funding and great operational results, the group now aims to become the leading technological and industrial platform promoting the Circular Economy on an international scale, with ambitious growth objectives.

Recommerce buys used equipment from private individuals and professionals, refurbishing and reselling it with a warranty. With 130 employees, Recommerce has local offices in eight countries. In 2021, the company continued to grow at a significant rate. Since 2009, Recommerce has refurbished 4 millions of pieces of equipment.

Thanks to its CircularX platform currently under development, Recommerce aims to enable industrials, distributors and OEMs to fully enter the circular economy and become re-merchants. The CircularX platform aims to offer all solutions (pricing, software, traceability, routing, logistics…) to support the buy-back, refurbishment and resale of all types of products.

As one of the leaders in smartphone refurbishment, Recommerce wishes to extend its “know-how” to other types of products, such as gaming consoles, smart watches, tablets, computers and DIY products, to give them a second life.

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This operation is in addition to the commitment of historical shareholders, such as Bouygues Telecom and the co-founders. Indeed, Bouygues Telecom, Recommerce’s historical shareholder, has been the forerunner in the refurbishment market since 2009, with the launch of the mobile trade-in programs and sale of refurbished phones.

Pierre-Etienne ROINAT, Chairman and Co-founder of Recommerce: “This alliance with innovative and committed companies allows Recommerce Group to multiply its impact: to act on the climate emergency and respond to consumers’ purchasing power challenges. Through this affiliation with major companies, we are maintaining an industrial dynamic to enable all merchants to become re-merchants and make their entire value chain more circular and thus more respectful of our environment and society.”

With a global turnover estimated by Statista at more than 50 billion euros for 2023, the second-hand market continues to grow rapidly. In the mobile phone sector, more than 10% of products sold are refurbished smartphones (up 20% between 2019 and 2020).

Refurbished smartphones are on average eight times better for the environment than new ones. Over two years of use, a refurbished smartphone avoids the extraction of 164 kg of primary raw materials and the emission of 50 kg of greenhouse gasses.