Based mostly in Singapore with places of work all through Asia and Australia, Reebelo needs to make shopping for pre-owned tech as fascinating as a model new gadget. “What we’ve seen is that many youthful generations are very a lot open to the thought of sustainable consumption,” co-founder Philip Franta informed TechCrunch. “We see numerous progress and momentum within the area globally, but in addition right here on this area, as a result of I believe we’re lastly on the stage as a society the place we’ve realized that the way in which we’ve consumed previously is just not sustainable.”

Traders agree, with Reebelo saying a $20 million Collection A right this moment, led by Cathay Innovation and June Fund. Different members embody FJ Labs, Naver affiliate KREAM, Moore Strategic Ventures, French Companions and Gandel Make investments. Returning backers additionally contributed, like Antler, Maximilian Bittner (co-founder of Lazada and present CEO of Vestiaire Collective, an e-commerce web site for curated pre-owned trend) and Michael Cassau, the founder and CEO of Grover, a tech rental platform.

Reebelo’s final funding was a $1 million seed spherical introduced in June 2020. The corporate was based in 2019 by Franta and Fabien Rastouil. It says that in lower than two years, its income has grown 600% year-over-year and it now has 10,000 month-to-month clients and is nearing $100 million in annualized gross merchandise worth. It has places of work in Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Taiwan.

In an interview, Franta and Rastouil mentioned they needed to create a startup that mixed social and entrepreneurial influence. Each had associated work expertise in Europe — Franta was concerned in subscription gadget applications for telecoms, whereas Rastouil labored at Recommerce Options, a French platform for pre-owned units.

However the two mentioned one thing like Recommerce didn’t exist but in Singapore, the place Rastouil grew up.

In contrast to many e-commerce marketplaces, Reebelo selects its distributors, with an emphasis on standardizing the situation of units and a particular grading system for customers, utilizing standards like aesthetics (for instance, if the gadget has a few scratches) and battery life. Associate distributors vary from small retailers to B2B gamers with a lot bigger volumes of units. Reebelo’s purpose is to construct the largest stock of pre-owned, refurbished units, and says it’s already the market chief in Singapore and Australia.

Earlier than including distributors to its platform, Reebelo screens them, checking that they’re authorized companies, assessing their scores on completely different distribution channels and ensuring they’re prepared to abide by Reebelo’s high quality checkpoints and returns and circumstances. The latter consists of free returns for 14 days and a one-year free guarantee.

“This helps to filter fairly effectively the distributors initially as a result of some don’t need to comply with a one-year assure,” Franta mentioned.

However Reebelo additionally sees its distributors as clients.

“We need to be a platform for all gamers on this round financial system,” mentioned Rastouil, which incorporates distributors which are simply getting began promoting licensed pre-owned units. “Distributors are additionally our clients, as a result of we actually need to create this entire round financial system along with them within the area as a result of it’s new for everybody.”

By way of competitors, Reebelo’s founders say it’s a first-move within the APAC area, in contrast to Europe, the place there are already a number of pre-owned gadget marketplaces. As a substitute of different e-commerce platforms, the principle problem is convincing clients that pre-owned units will be simply nearly as good as model new ones.

“There’s fairly some stigma in some nations right here within the area, so the primary problem we needed to overcome to start with was creating belief with our customers,” says Franta. “That meant actually altering minds from shopping for new to additionally shopping for refurbished units, however I believe we’ve achieved lots.”

The brand new funding will probably be used to rent about 50 new workers in Reebelo’s present markets throughout departments, and increase into new markets in 2022, together with South Korea. It plans to supply new monetary providers, like gadget subscription, prolonged warranties in some areas, injury protection or stolen telephone safety. It’s also increasing its verticals. Proper now, Reebelo’s essential class is smartphones, but it surely needs to promote extra tablets, laptops and drones.

In a press release, Cathay Innovation funding director Rajive Keshup mentioned, “Reebelo is offering a platform and market for customers that makes it simpler for anybody to acquire digital items, all whereas serving to to unravel the issue of e-waste. The corporate is offering a pivotal platform for the round financial system in Southeast Asia and Australia, and we stay up for serving to foster their enlargement and progress.”