Romanian startup Flip.ro, a marketplace of refurbished phones, reached revenues of EUR 1.3 million in the first ten months after its launch and exceeded the initial estimates for full 2020.

The business, founded by local entrepreneurs Alin Luca and George Moroianu, launched in December 2019. Until now, over 6,000 phones have been sold through Flip.ro.

The platform's goal is to take a chunk of the peer-to-peer transactions with used phones in Romania, which take place through online marketplaces. Flip.ro checks and refurbishes the phones received from sellers and puts them on sale on the platform.

The platform also offers warranty for the smartphones it sells and has recently increased the warranty period from 100 days to 12 months. It has also introduced a new option that allows sellers to get their money faster in exchange for a higher fee for the platform. Thus, sellers don't have to wait for the phone to be sold, which can take about nine days, on average, and get their money in one or two days.

Last year, Flip.ro received an initial investment of EUR 120,000 from investment funds V7 Capital, owned by Andrei Cretu and Iulian Cîrciumaru, GapMinder (through the Techcelerator accelerator), and Difrnt Agency (the digital marketing team with which it collaborates to generate these results).

In June of this year, Flip.ro received new funds worth EUR 250,000, aimed at propelling the company as a leader of the second-hand and refurbished electronics market in Romania. The company wants to expand abroad in 2021. 

(Photo courtesy of the company)

andrei@romania-insider.com