Backmarket
Verified“French-controlled, EU-rooted — with a US arm and unproven cloud sovereignty.”
- Valuation
- $5.7B
- GMV 2025
- €3B+
- Customers
- ~17M
- Founded
- 2014
63 = midpoint of Control 73 & Data 52
Sovereignty Quadrant
Control ↑ who owns & governs the company · Data → where your data lives. Every dot is a company — click to open it.
Every number below traces to 15 sourced facts across 12 independent sources, last verified 2026-06-12. 4 open questions hold confidence at 78% — they lower confidence, never the score.
Control ↑
Who legally and economically controls the company
Legal & Jurisdiction
82
The operating and contracting entity for the EU is Jung SAS (trading as Back Market), a French société par actions simplifiée registered in Paris (RCS 804 049 476), founded 1 Aug 2014, HQ at 199 Rue Championnet, 75018 Paris. For EU users the data controller is this French entity, squarely within reach of French/EU law and the CNIL. A separate US entity, Back Market, Inc. (Brooklyn, NY), is the controller for US users — so EU enforceability over the EU business is high, but the group spans jurisdictions.
Why 82? 4 sourced facts · click to expand
EU operating entity is a French SAS registered in Paris
Annuaire des Entreprises (data.gouv.fr) · as of 2026-06-12
Legal mentions confirm French SAS, Paris registration, French publication director
Back Market Pro mentions légales · as of 2026-06-12
EU data controller is the French entity, not the US one
Back Market FR data-protection page · as of 2026-06-12
A separate US entity is the controller for US users
Back Market US privacy policy · as of 2026-06-12
Control & Ownership
64
Privately held; voting control sits with the founders via French holding companies (the SAS president is LA LAURENE, the holdco of CEO/founder Thibaud Hug de Larauze). The cap table is EU-weighted but not EU-majority: EU investors include Eurazeo, Daphni and Aglaé Ventures, while substantial economic stakes are held by US/UK funds — General Atlantic, Sprints Capital, Goldman Sachs Growth Equity and Generation Investment Management. No public IPO/listing venue. Founder voting control is EU; economic ownership is mixed EU/non-EU.
Why 64? 4 sourced facts · click to expand
The SAS president is a French founder holding company
Pappers (J.G Jung SAS) · as of 2026-06-12
Series E ($510M, Jan 2022, $5.7B valuation) led by a non-EU fund
Back Market press release · as of 2022-01-11
Investor base mixes EU and US/UK funds
Generation IM / FinSMEs Series D coverage · as of 2021-05-18
Total raised about $1.0B over five rounds; still private, no listing
TechCrunch · as of 2022-01-11
Data →
Where your data lives and who can reach it
Data & Infrastructure
34
This is the sovereignty gap. The EU privacy policy says processing is 'mainly carried out in Europe' but names no EU-sovereign provider and explicitly acknowledges transfers to third countries outside the EU (customer service, IT subcontracting, social media). The US privacy policy is blunter: servers for US-collected data are 'hosted in the United States by our partners.' No EU-owned cloud is disclosed; payment data is handled by Adyen (EU). Net: EU-region processing claimed but on undisclosed (likely US-hyperscaler) infrastructure, with documented extra-EU transfers and a US data home for the US arm.
Why 34? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
EU policy: processing mainly in Europe but transfers outside the EU occur
Back Market FR data-protection page · as of 2026-06-12
US policy: servers hosting collected data are in the United States
Back Market US privacy policy · as of 2026-06-12
Payment data handled by an EU provider in EU data centres
Back Market US privacy policy · as of 2026-06-12
Operations & People
80
Founded in Paris in 2014; France is the single largest market by GMV and the company reports in euros. Leadership is French (CEO/founder Thibaud Hug de Larauze; CFO-then-CEO-designate Clément Petit from Sept 2026). Offices in Paris and Bordeaux anchor the company, with additional hubs in Berlin and New York; ~17 markets, ~17M customers, several hundred to ~750 employees. The footprint is EU-centered with a meaningful but secondary US presence (US is the #2 market).
Why 80? 4 sourced facts · click to expand
Founded in Paris in 2014; France is the largest market, reporting in euros
Back Market 2025 business-growth press release · as of 2025
French leadership; new CEO (ex-CFO) from Sept 2026, founder stays Exec Chairman
Maddyness UK · as of 2026-06-08
B Corp certified entity located in ÃŽle-de-France, France
B Lab Global directory · as of 2026-06-12
EBITDA-profitable in 2025; ~17M customers across ~17 markets
Ecommerce News EU · as of 2026
Aligned to the EU Commission’s official Cloud Sovereignty Framework (SEAL, Jun 2026) →
What we don’t know
4 open questions — they lower confidence, never the score
- ?
Which cloud provider(s) actually host EU user data, and in which regions?
Decisive for the infra score. 'Mainly in Europe' with no named EU-sovereign provider likely means a US hyperscaler (e.g. AWS/GCP) on EU regions — CLOUD Act exposure — but this is not confirmed from primary sources.
- ?
Is the French SAS the top holding company, or does a US/Delaware parent sit above the cap table?
Affects legal and ownership scores. Public registries show French entities and the founder holdco as president, but the full group structure and where investor shares are held is not fully disclosed.
- ?
Exact voting-vs-economic split across EU vs US/UK investors
Determines whether economic majority is EU. Beneficial-owner data is access-restricted in French registries; cap-table percentages are not public.
- ?
Current total headcount and its geographic split (EU vs US)
Refines the operations score; figures range from ~650 (2022) to ~750+ (2026) with no clean EU/US breakdown.
EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework lens
SEAL targets cloud service providers; Back Market is a marketplace, so this is an analogous sovereignty mapping, not a certification.
Strategic
French-founded, founder-led, EU-headquartered with France as its #1 market and euro reporting — strategically EU-anchored.
Legal & jurisdictional
EU business runs through Jung SAS (RCS Paris), fully within French/EU and CNIL reach; a separate US Inc covers the US market.
Data & AI
EU policy says processing 'mainly in Europe' but names no EU-sovereign cloud and admits extra-EU transfers; US arm hosts in the US.
Operational
Paris/Bordeaux hubs, French leadership, EU-centered workforce; US is a secondary office and market.
Supply chain
Marketplace of independent refurbishers across the EU and beyond; some sellers and customer-service ops sit outside the EU (e.g. Morocco).
Technological
Engineering is Paris-led, but the underlying cloud/hosting stack is undisclosed and not demonstrably EU-sovereign.
Security & compliance
GDPR-framed, PCI-DSS payments via Adyen (EU data centres), B Corp certified; but data-residency guarantees are vague.
Environmental sustainability
Core mission is reuse/refurbishment; certified B Corp (B Impact score 93.2, Mar 2023).
EU alternatives
Vienna-based refurbished-electronics marketplace — a direct EU-headquartered peer to Back Market.
Helsinki-based refurbished-iPhone retailer; EU-incorporated and EU-operated, vertically integrated rather than a marketplace.
Itself a strong EU choice on legal/ops; the caveat is undisclosed cloud hosting and a US arm with US-hosted data.
How the method works
Methodology v2 (provisional): the score is the midpoint of two axes — Control (who owns and governs the company) and Data (where your data lives and who can reach it). Each axis is scored only on verified evidence; unknowns reduce confidence, never the score. Every input below is sourced; the weights and judgments are open to challenge.
Spotted an error? Every claim is sourced — challenge it and we correct the record.
- 2026-06-12 — Initial golden profile, authored from primary sources (human + AI review).
Report Incorrect Data
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Verified 2026-06-12 · Human + AI joint review (sources independently checked) · Methodology