Fast fashion, fast food, fast furniture, fast tech. So many consumer industries are predicated on speed and scale, overproducing and churning through new trends at record pace — often to a destructive degree.
When refurbished tech marketplace Back Market launched in 2014, the tech industry stood at the precipice of this careening consumption, profits, and impact. Apple had just released the iPhone 6 Plus, Instagram was in its infancy, and wearables were a brand new concept. But Back Market co-founders Thibaud Hug de Larauze, Quentin Le Brouster and Vianney Vaute could see where the industry was headed, and they were determined to find another way.
“We have always answered the needs of humanity by producing more and consuming more, but resources are limited, so that doesn’t work,” says CEO Hug de Larauze. “We have to do more with what we already have, and stop extracting matters from the earth just to throw them away.”
Their hunch — that circularity could replace linear consumption and curb waste — was sound. Since securing a $5.7 billion valuation in January 2022 — alongside a $530 million series E funding round — the Back Market business has been booming. The Parisian startup has now racked up a total of €884.3 million in investment, and has two thousand sellers globally, more than half of which are in Mainland Europe. The US is Back Market’s second largest market with 400 sellers, followed by 330 in Japan, and 270 in the UK. Net sales rose 27% in the past year, while overall gross merchandise value (GMV) grew 32% to $3.5 billion for 2025 full year. According to Back Market, refurbished smartphone sales in Europe grew 10% a year between 2017 and 2023, while new device sales declined 4% in the same period.
Back Market CEO and co-founder Thibaud Hug de Larauze says he wants to make circularity “the new normal” in tech.Photo: Back Market
There are lessons for fashion from Back Market’s rise. As Hug de Larauze explains, Back Market was instrumental in lobbying for progressive circular fashion regulations across the European Union a challenge fashion is currently grappling with — and its retail strategy addresses displacement rate in a way few circular fashion companies have managed.
Then, there’s the marketing — a tongue-in-cheek proposition that goes beyond sustainability, appealing to cost-conscious consumers with a nostalgic craving for simpler tech. “Comebacks aren’t exclusive to Liam and Noel,” proclaims a poster for an old-school iPod. “Text your naughty list, for less,” reads another, for a refurbished phone. A Henry vacuum cleaner is pitched as “an ’80s icon you won’t find any dirt on”.
In September, Back Market hosted the first Slow Tech Uprising Summit in Paris, with speakers from Pinterest, Depop, Vestiaire Collective, and Vinted exploring how to scale the circular economy. It was a rare example of cross-industry collaboration, and a stake in the ground for Hug de Larauze, who says he wants to “make circularity the new normal”. Fashion can learn from the CEO and Back Market’s model, which — just like circular fashion — needs to recruit sellers for inventory, earn trust with customers and try to break the cycle of newness, all while scaling the business.