Our investment in Revibe, the MENA marketplace for refurbished electronics
Today we are proud to announce that Resonance is leading a $2.3m pre-seed round in Revibe, the Middle East’s leading marketplace for refurbished electronics, alongside Flat6labs, Financière Saint-James and Techmind. With Revibe, consumers have access to the latest versions of electronic devices, at a discount of up to 50%, while reducing their carbon footprints. Since we invested in December of last year, Revibe has multiplied its GMV and revenue by 5x and is growing at a speed we have rarely seen.
In December of last year, we met with Hamza, and Abdessamad, 2 French/Moroccan who studied at Ecole Polytechnique in France, before setting up inDubai to work in strategy consulting. Entrepreneurs at heart, they have always been launching businesses on the side. Hamza launched Peekaboo Nannies, a C2C nanny marketplace that he brought to profitability while working late nights and weekends!
A very large market that needs to be addressed by a local company
Working for telecoms operators in the MENA regions, they realized that the Middle east market was ripe for disruption when it comes to electronics refurbishment. The region also benefits from the same macroeconomic trends that have made the refurbished electronics model so successful in other regions of the world:
On the supply side, Dubai is the 3rd largest exporter of reconditioned smartphones worldwide. Today, there are in Dubai hundreds of local refurbishers of all sizes who are currently mainly selling abroad, that Revibe can easily plug into.
Demand for affordable smartphones is strong and growing:
- There is a massive adoption of Apple and Samsung smartphones in the region (51% of people have one of the two brands in UAE and Saudi Arabia) and are by far the brands driving the growth of refurbished marketplaces.
- If you consider only the UAE and Saudi Arabia smartphone market, where Revibe is present, it is larger than France: there are 30% fewer people, but the number of smartphones per capita is >2 (the highest in the world, compared with 1x in France). Overall, the MENA region’s smartphone market is larger than Western Europe’s.
A well proved business model in other regions
Revibe is well positioned to become a leader in the MENA region and follow in the footsteps of other regional leaders:
- BackMarket has become the leading consumer brand in Europe’s circular economy. Lastly valued at $5.5b, making it the second most valuable French tech company, Back Market is currently available in 14 EU countries and the US. It is highly profitable in France and its more mature markets, and is aiming for group-wide profitability by the end of next year.
- In China, Aihuishou was funded in 2011 raised over $800m
- In Southeast Asia, Reebelo launched in 2020 and raised $50m to then expand to Australia
- In Brazil, Trocafone has become a local leader in Brazil after raising $62m
Since our investment we have been amazed by Hamza and Abdessamad’s speed of execution and the quality of the people they’ve hired. We are looking forward to our next years together.
