Reebelo, a Singapore-based marketplace for refurbished electronics, announced it has raised a seed round of $1.25 million led by June Fund, with participation from Antler.
The new funding will be used for hiring, especially marketing and operations positions for customer service as the company scales. Reebelo currently operates in Singapore, but plans to expand across the Asia-Pacific region over the next two to three years.
Founded last year by chief executive officer Philip Franta, Reebelo was launched to reduce the amount of waste created by consumer electronics. The company participated in StartupX’s HyperSpark, a pre-accelerator program focused on sustainability that is run in partnership with Temasek, Singapore’s sovereign fund.
Reebelo, which holds a secondhand goods dealer’s license from the Singapore Police Force, differentiates from peer-to-peer marketplaces by screening and refurbishing electronic devices, including phones, laptops, tablets and gaming devices, before they are listed on the site. Each device comes with a warranty and the company says they can cost up to 70% less than a new version. It also buys used devices for cash through its online trade-in program.
June’s managing partner, David Rosskamp, will join Reebelo’s board.
In a press statement, Rosskamp said, “We are strong believers and investors in circular commerce. What it ultimately stands for is a different form of consumption, with a more sustainable and often fairer way. Reebelo’s team is following this mission with passion and focus. Supporting Reebelo to build up a central electronics trading infrastructure ideally mirrors our investment theses, and we are happy to invest at an earlier stage than we usually do.”
