This Delhi-Based Startup Earned Over Rs 200 Cr Selling Second-Hand Smartphones

ReFit Global, co-founded by Saket Saurav and Avneet Singh, is transforming India’s refurbished tech market space. This Delhi-based startup has found tremendous success in the second-hand smartphone business.

The issue pertaining to refurbished smartphones has always been quality and this factor has remained the prime limitation for both sellers and consumers. But, ReFit Global seems to have found a way around this problem and is now thriving by selling refurbished smartphones.

Reports suggest that the startup first sources devices that are exchanged on e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Flipkart. The firm also gets phones from companies like Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi.

These old phones are then put through the company’s own Mobile Diagnostic application. This app evaluates each device on 37 quality check parameters.

Reportedly, ReFit Global has managed to sell over 15 lakh phones. Of the total sales, 80 percent devices were sourced from Flipkart and the rest from other e-commerce platforms.

It is worth noting that ReFit not only sells refurbished phones, but it also deals in old electrical appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines, television, and air conditioners.

ReFit Global has recorded a 100 per cent year-on-year growth in revenue. In fact, the company’s revenue in India’s second-hand device market has been increasing steadily over the past few years.

In FY 2017-18, ReFit Global had reported a revenue of Rs 8 crore, which increased to Rs 19 crore in FY 2018-19. In FY 2020, the startup recorded a revenue of Rs 44 crore. ReFit’s success can be gauged by the fact that its revenue had crossed Rs 200 crore in FY2023 as it sold nearly 500,000 handsets. The company aims to earn Rs 350 crore as revenue in FY 2024.

As reported by Your Story, the co-founders of ReFit Global first found success in the second-hand device segment while they were working at Shopclues.

India is a promising market when it comes to the business of refurbished smartphones. As the country’s smartphone penetration is still very low, there is a huge potential for the growth of the refurbished device segment. The growing popularity of second-hand smartphones can be attributed to the increased selling price of new models. Many buyers are willing to buy a refurbished smartphone, which offers them more features than a similarly priced new phone.