Back Market company profile: valuation, funding & revenue

This Back Market company profile covers the company's valuation, revenue, funding rounds, investors and history. Back Market works in e-commerce, with a focus on marketplace for refurbished electronics. It was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Paris, France. Its latest valuation on record is US$5.7 billion (January 2022). Every figure links to a public source, and anything the company hasn't disclosed is marked as such.

Revenue

Funding history

Back Market timeline

Key dates from the sources on this page, oldest first. Metric snapshots are listed after the funding events.

• 2014 — Back Market is founded in Paris by Thibaud Hug de Larauze (CEO), Vianney Vaute and Quentin Le Brouster.
• May 2021 — Series D: US$335M, valuing the company at US$3.2B.
• Jan 2022 — Series E: €450M (about US$510M), valuing the company at US$5.7B. Investors: Sprints Capital (lead); Eurazeo, Aglaé Ventures, General Atlantic, Generation.
• 2025 — Gross merchandise value: More than €3.5 billion, up 32%.
• 2025 — Profitability: Global profitability in 2025; EBITDA margin around 35% in France.
• 2025 — Customers and markets: 17 million customers in 17 markets.

Investors

Overview

Back Market is an online marketplace for refurbished electronics: smartphones, laptops, tablets, game consoles, headphones and household appliances that have been professionally inspected, repaired and resold. It doesn't refurbish devices itself. Instead, it connects buyers with hundreds of professional refurbishers and sets quality standards, warranties and return policies so customers can trust a used product. It also buys old devices from consumers through a trade-in service.

Thibaud Hug de Larauze, the CEO, founded Back Market in Paris in 2014 with Vianney Vaute and Quentin Le Brouster. The idea was to make refurbished products a mainstream alternative to new ones, cheaper for consumers and better for the environment, since manufacturing new electronics accounts for most of their carbon footprint. Back Market now operates in 17 markets across Europe, the United States and Asia-Pacific and has served 17 million customers.

How Back Market makes money

Back Market earns a commission on each sale made through its marketplace, paid by the refurbisher. It also earns from services such as extended warranties, insurance and trade-in. Because it doesn't hold inventory, it avoids the cost and risk of owning stock; refurbishers handle sourcing, repair and shipping. Its main costs are marketing, customer service, quality control and technology. As a marketplace, it is usually measured by gross merchandise value (GMV), the total value of goods sold, with its own revenue being a fraction of that.

2025 results

Back Market reported more than €3.5 billion in GMV for 2025, up 32% from the previous year, and said it had achieved global profitability. In France, its most mature market, it reported an EBITDA margin of around 35%, which shows the business can be very profitable once it reaches scale in a country. Germany was a growth highlight, with GMV and revenue each up 58% and the customer base up 64%. The company said its key US test markets grew more than 40 percentage points faster than its overall average.

Back Market hasn't published its total revenue in the sources we reviewed, so we show GMV and profitability rather than a revenue figure.

Funding history

• May 2021, Series D: US$335 million, valuing Back Market at about US$3.2 billion.
• January 2022, Series E: €450 million (about US$510 million) led by Sprints Capital, with Eurazeo, Aglaé Ventures, General Atlantic and Generation Investment Management, at a US$5.7 billion valuation. That made it one of France's most valuable startups.

After 2022 the company focused on profitability rather than new funding. Data providers have recorded later valuation estimates, but we haven't seen a newer primary round, so we use the 2022 figure.

Why refurbished electronics are growing

Several trends have helped. New smartphones have become very expensive, and improvements between generations have slowed, so a two-year-old flagship phone is perfectly good for most people. Refurbished devices with warranties have overcome much of the old stigma around buying used. Consumers and governments care more about electronic waste and carbon emissions; producing a new smartphone generates far more emissions than refurbishing an old one. European rules promoting the "right to repair" and longer product life also support the market.

Quality and trust

The biggest challenge for any used electronics marketplace is trust. A buyer worries about battery health, hidden faults or a device that doesn't match its description. Back Market addresses this by vetting refurbishers, monitoring their defect rates, standardising condition grades, offering at least a one-year warranty and free returns, and removing sellers who don't meet standards. Customer reviews and data on returns help it identify problems. Getting this right is what separates a trusted marketplace from a general second-hand site.

Competitive landscape

Back Market competes with phone makers' and carriers' own refurbished and trade-in programmes, general marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay that sell refurbished goods, and specialist refurbished sellers in each country. Its advantages are brand recognition, focus, quality controls and a large network of refurbishers.

What to watch next

Watch growth in the US and Germany, profit margins outside France, expansion into new product categories, any new funding or secondary transaction that updates its valuation, and IPO plans.

Key facts at a glance

Back Market is a Paris marketplace for refurbished electronics founded in 2014 by Thibaud Hug de Larauze, Vianney Vaute and Quentin Le Brouster. It reported more than €3.5 billion in GMV for 2025, up 32%, achieved global profitability, and has served 17 million customers in 17 markets. It raised €450 million at a US$5.7 billion valuation in January 2022, led by Sprints Capital.

Marketplace economics: GMV versus revenue

When reading figures for a marketplace like Back Market, it's important to separate GMV from revenue. GMV is the total value of goods sold through the platform; revenue is the share the marketplace keeps as commissions and fees, usually a small fraction of GMV. A marketplace with €3.5 billion in GMV might have revenue of a few hundred million euros. Investors look at the "take rate" (revenue divided by GMV) and how it changes over time. Raising the take rate improves revenue but can drive sellers away; keeping it low helps grow volume.

Lessons from market-by-market profitability

Back Market's results show a typical pattern for international marketplaces. The home market, where the brand is strongest and marketing is most efficient, becomes highly profitable first. Newer markets need heavy investment in marketing and operations before they reach the same scale. A company can be very profitable at home while losing money abroad, and overall profitability depends on balancing the two. That's why the 35% EBITDA margin in France matters: it shows what each new market could eventually look like.

What this means if you're…

A consumer: refurbished devices can save significant money; compare warranties, condition grades and return policies.

A business buying devices: refurbished laptops and phones can cut equipment costs and emissions; check business purchasing programmes.

An investor: compare GMV growth with profitability by market, and watch for a new valuation marker since 2022.

Latest developments (October 2026)

Back Market has not announced a new round since its January 2022 Series E of US$510 million at US$5.7 billion, so that figure remains the latest sourced valuation and reflects the 2021–2022 market peak. The refurbished electronics marketplace continues to operate across Europe, the US and Japan, where it runs seasonal promotions. Demand for refurbished phones is supported by high prices for new devices and right-to-repair rules in Europe.

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from the public sources below. Where sources disagreed, we used the company's own announcement or a primary news report. Private-company data changes; check the date beside each figure.

1. TechCrunch
2. Ecommerce News Europe
3. Tech.eu