Back Market

Back Market is an online marketplace for refurbished electronics, founded in Paris in 2014 by three friends. It connects consumers with vetted, professional refurbishers who restore devices to premium quality, with the stated aim of making refurbished tech a mainstream purchase rather than a niche one. The company operates across 17 countries and has sold more than 30 million devices to date.

Its business sits at the intersection of e-commerce, consumer electronics and the circular economy. Rather than selling devices directly, Back Market runs a two-sided marketplace in which refurbishers are the sellers, and quality assurance rests on vetting and holding those professional suppliers to standards. The company reports that its activity has prevented approximately 1.6 million tons of carbon emissions.

Back Market is a Certified B Corp and frames its work as a response to the e-waste crisis and to what it describes as a culture of overproduction and overconsumption in consumer technology. The mission is to extend the useful life of electronics, positioning refurbished devices as both affordable and less damaging to the environment than buying new.