Austrian green-tech startup Refurbed raises €2M led by Inventure Partners

Austrian green-tech Refurbed, the fastest growing startup that sells old electronic devices, raises 2 million euros Austrian media reported. The round was led by Inventure Partners, but was also supported by the London-based VC Atomico, a VC founded by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström. Speedinvest and Pioneers Ventures are also among the investors. 

According to Peter Windischhofer, the Refurbed’s founder, this is one of the largest seed investment made in Austria.

“The 2 million euros are among the largest seed investments that have ever existed in Austria. The investment helps us to further strengthen our market position and further develop the product “, says Windischhofer. The new investors also included existing shareholders, including Speedinvest and Pioneers Ventures (Startup300).

“The investment is a further step for us”, adds Kilian Kaminski, co-founder at Refurbed “making sustainable shopping as easy as possible across Europe. Every refurbed device – whether iPhone, laptop or food processor – looks like new and works like new. Normally, sustainable products are more expensive, but they are up to 40% cheaper and 100% sustainable.”

For both the leading investors Inventure Partners, but Atomico as well, the potential in the Refurbed team was crucial for investing in this startup.

“We believe that refurbed can become the leading player for refurbed products in Europe or even beyond. We see great potential in this team “, says Sergey Azatyans CEO at Inventure Partners.

“The unique composition of the founding team with their individual capabilities was undoubtedly crucial to making this investment,” said Suvi Haimi, Angel Investor of Atomico.

Founded in 2017 by Peter Windischhofer, Kilian Kaminski and Jürgen Riedl, Refurbed is the fastest growing online marketplace for refurbished products in the German-speaking world. The startup, which is based in Vienna, sells renewed phones, laptops and tablets which are up to 40% cheaper and 100% more environmentally friendly than their brand-new, store-bought counterparts. Refurbed devices are renewed through a 40-step process, making them look like new and function like new. On top of that, each device comes with at least a 12-month guarantee.

At the moment Refurbed is present in Austria, Germany, Poland and Italy. But the startup’s team plans to enter new markets by the end of this year. To date, the German market makes the biggest share – 70 percent of the sales of refurbed devices is made on this market. The company now has 30 people working for the startup and, according to the latest release, 30,000 customers have already made ordered devices from Refurbed. For their positive impact on the environment, at the European Climate Impact Battle event, this startup took second place among more than 300 companies competing. Moreover, at the Green Alley Award 2018, Refurbed was ranked among the top 3 most sustainable tech startups in Europe. Two of its founders, Peter Windischhofer and Kilian Kaminski, were recently included in the Forbes 30 under 30 list for Europe.

Founded in 2012 in Moscow, the leading investor in this round – Inventure Partners – is an innovative investment fund focused on funding disruptive technology startups. The fund looks for teams with a novel approach to business models, and companies that are able to solve real problems and remove inefficiencies in the market. Inventure Partners backs a wide range of ventures across the technology industry.

Atomico – Skype founder Niklas Zennström’s VC – is a venture capital firm specializing in seed, startup, Series A, early venture, mid venture, late venture, emerging growth, and growth capital investments. Interestingly, this VC does not invest in American companies.  Atomico prefers to invest in Internet, telecoms, technology with a focus on innovative and disruptive technology, financial technology and media companies.

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