A few days ago, four funds invested 41 million Euros in Back Market.
We’ll spare you the “it feels like a fairytale” comments. But we have to admit that such a vast sum does feel a little surreal. Oh, the fascinating power of abstraction of high finance! It almost reminds us of the dizzying heights of the subprime crisis, when billions of dollars evaporated, live on BFM Business.
“I’d rather keep my feet on the ground”
Bruce Willis, in a deleted scene from Armageddon.
Us too. So it’s not beside the point to remind our readers that this gigantic sum of money will finance a project that is very well grounded in real life, and smells strongly of coding and elbow grease.
***
Financing Quality
Building a Quality Refurbishment Label
It seems obvious but can’t be re-stated enough: Back Market would be nothing without the backers who supported us from the very start to the very end. If that’s you, here you go : ♥️.
Our project’s success is due to our ability to surpass our clients’ expectations. We are more focused than ever on our sector’s main challenge: quality.
These funds will allow us to go a step further in monitoring and supporting our vendors. It will also allow us to finance 1,002 ideas for services and innovations that will make Back Market more attractive and effective than ever.
We never lose sight of our original ambition, which is to make the purchase of refurbished tech products as simple, pleasant, and human as dropping by the neighborhood corner store (before 11pm). Now we have more means to make this happen than ever.
***
Financing a team
Recruiting more talent, in the flesh
At each Monday Brief (Monday morning breakfasts, where we bring the team together to sketch out the week ahead), something quasi-miraculous appears: 90 talented people, representing 10 different nationalities, putting their crazy energy and creativity to use for our project.
A real sub-culture is sprouting up in our startup. An explosive, tangible cocktail of unique personalities and shared values which led us to christen our meeting room “Jabba’s Palace”, zoom around the office on scooters, and share custody of a rabbit over the weekends.
These new funds will allow us to expand this phenomenon and hire dozens of new Back Makers. Even more flesh-and-blood talent and madness.
***
Financing an Ideology
Changing the face of tech, in a concrete and spectacular way
Yes, these new funds do “validate” nearly four years of zealous work. Yes, Back Market has become a leader in refurbishment in Europe (by the way, did we tell you that our TV film speaks Spanish? Careful, it’s spicy).
But our ambition goes even further. Ideologically, we are still haunted by this crazy dream of making refurbished products an alternative to brand new for the general public. With the aim of reducing electronic waste and wasted resources. And geographically, we dream of doing this on the universal scale (that’s why we’ve casually starting invading America).
Basically, “the world is not enough”: we won’t stop before having changed it for good. These dizzying new funds give us the means for this very concrete ambition.
Shock’s over… now back to work!:)
Thibaud, Quentin, and Vianney
co-founders of Back Market