This Dubai startup just raised $17 million to change how you buy phones, laptops

Dubai: Shoppers in the UAE may soon find it even easier to buy phones, laptops, and other gadgets, that feel brand new, without paying full new-device prices.

Revibe, a Dubai-based marketplace that focuses on refurbished electronics, has raised $17 million (approx Dh62.4 million) in fresh funding led by global investment firm Partech, with backing from E& Capital, Burda Principal Investments and EQNX, along with existing investors.

The company said the money will be used to improve quality, customer experience and speed up its expansion from the Gulf into Africa and other emerging markets.​

Co-founder and co-CEO Hamza Iraqui told Gulf News the funding was seen inside the company as a vote of confidence in a simple promise to shoppers: refurbished does not mean second-best. He stressed that Revibe’s ambition is to offer devices that are “as good as new” in daily use, but at lower prices and with a lower impact on the planet.

Revibe was founded in 2022 and already operates in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and South Africa, with Egypt acting as a major operations base.

Iraqui said the start-up’s biggest competitor is not another website, but the long-standing habit of walking into a shop and buying a brand-new phone or laptop.

In markets such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, where many people upgrade devices every one or two years, the main barrier he sees is trust, not demand.​

To break that barrier, every device listed on Revibe goes through a 50-point check, comes with a 12‑month warranty and is backed by in‑house customer care, so buyers have someone to call if anything goes wrong in the first year.

Iraqui said issues can happen even with factory-fresh devices, so Revibe’s role is to make sure customers feel protected and looked after, whether a device is repaired or replaced.​

Unlike traditional retailers, Revibe does not buy and hold stock itself. Instead it runs a technology-enabled marketplace where approved sellers list devices, while Revibe’s systems constantly track how those sellers perform on quality and service.

Iraqui explained that sellers with strong quality scores are allowed to keep selling, while those with poor scores can be blocked, creating what he described as constant competition on quality behind the scenes.

He argued that this asset-light marketplace model is the “winning” structure for refurbished electronics, because it can scale quickly across borders without warehouses full of stock.

The company earns its revenue by taking a commission on each sale, while spending heavily on technology, people, marketing and customer care to keep standards high.

Today Revibe focuses mainly on smartphones and laptops, but Iraqui said the platform is already moving into nearby categories such as tablets, smartwatches, health devices and TVs.

Over the next two years, the range is expected to broaden significantly to include more types of consumer electronics, with home appliances and sound systems also on the radar. The guiding idea, he said, is that almost any electronic device can be refurbished to a high standard if the right process is followed.

Revibe’s suppliers range from professional refurbishers to merchants who work with lightly used or returned devices, which are cleaned, tested and repaired before being sold on as certified units.

Iraqui said that before platforms like Revibe, many buyers in the region relied on informal online listings or small repair shops, often with no warranty and no way to check what they were really getting.

Winning over Gulf consumers used to shiny new products has required heavy spending on awareness campaigns, according to Iraqui.

Marketing work has focused on explaining how the service works, what checks are done and why refurbished devices can be better for both wallets and the environment. He described the process as a long, costly effort to nudge people towards a new habit, rather than a quick marketing splash.

Over time, he said, Revibe has attracted “hundreds of thousands” of customers across age groups, genders and income levels, which is exactly what the founders wanted.

The goal is not to serve only bargain hunters, but to make refurbished an everyday, mainstream option whenever someone is thinking of buying a phone or other device.