The Tamesis
Fast fashion, fast food, fast furniture, fast technology. Many consumer industries are built on speed and scale, overproducing and churning out new trends at record speeds—often to disruptive proportions.
When the revamped tech marketplace Back Market launched in 2014, the tech industry was on the precipice of declining consumption, profits, and influence. Apple had just released the iPhone 6 Plus, Instagram was in its infancy, and wearable devices were a completely new concept. But Back Market co-founders Thibaud Hug de Larauze, Quentin Le Brouster and Vianney Vaute saw where the industry was heading and were determined to find another way.
“We have been meeting human needs by increasing production and consumption, but resources are limited, so this is not feasible,” said CEO Hug de Larauze. “We have to do more with the resources we already have and stop extracting materials from the earth just to throw them away.”
Their hunch – that circularity could replace linear consumption and curb waste – was sound. The aftermarket business has been booming since it secured a $5.7 billion valuation and $530 million in Series E funding in January 2022. The Paris-based startup has so far invested €884.3 million and has 2,000 sellers around the world, more than half of whom are in continental Europe. The United States is Back Market’s second largest market with 400 sellers, followed by Japan with 330 sellers and the United Kingdom with 270 sellers. Net sales grew 27% last year, and full-year gross merchandise value (GMV) increased 32% in 2025 to $3.5 billion. According to data from Back Market, refurbished smartphone sales in Europe will increase by 10% annually between 2017 and 2023, while new device sales will decline by 4% during the same period.
Thibaud Hug de Larauze, CEO and co-founder of Back Market, said he hopes to make circularity the “new normal” in tech.Photo: Aftermarket
The rise of the aftermarket has brought some lessons to the fashion industry. As Hug de Larauze explains, Back Market has been instrumental in lobbying for progressive circular fashion regulations across the EU, a challenge the fashion industry is currently grappling with, and its retail strategy addresses replacement rates in a way that few circular fashion companies have.
Then there’s the marketing—a tongue-in-cheek claim that goes beyond sustainability to appeal to cost-conscious consumers with a nostalgic thirst for simple technology. “Comebacks aren’t just for Liam and Noel,” declares a poster for an old iPod. “Text to your naughty list for cheaper,” another user wrote of buying a refurbished phone. The Henry vacuum cleaner was pitched as an “80s icon where you won’t find any dirt.”
In September, Back Market hosted the first Slow Tech Uprising Summit in Paris, where speakers from Pinterest, Depop, Vestiaire Collective and Vinted discussed how to scale the circular economy. It’s a rare example of cross-industry collaboration, and it’s the basis for Hug de Larauze, who says he wants to “make circularity the new normal.” The fashion industry can learn from the CEO and after-market models, just like circular fashion, which requires recruiting inventory sellers, gaining the trust of customers, and trying to break the cycle of novelty while scaling up the business.
