Korean-based refurbished electronics subscription service ‘phoneGO,’ operated by Pierrot Company, has received investments from HGI and Gordon & Partners. 

Pierrot Company, which had already secured KRW 100 million in seed investments from startup accelerators Primer and Dcamp in March this year, successfully raised KRW 1 billion in Pre-Series A investment from Primer Sazze Partners in June. Pierrot Company plans to use the HGI investment to develop technology for ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) management and strengthen the value chain for eco-friendly categories.

Pierrot Company’s CEO, Park Min-jin, stated, “In July of this year, we achieved the break-even point (BEP) and turned a profit in the third quarter. Pierrot Company will continue its efforts to establish a sustainable ecosystem for electronic devices and provide advanced services.”

‘phoneGO’ refers to various refurbished electronic devices that have been refurbished to a new product standard due to defects or customer returns, allowing users to set a subscription period or make purchases through installment payments. Since its official launch, ‘phoneGO’ has acquired more than 18,000 members. 

The company has also secured a network of more than 500 repair service providers nationwide, offers a one-year quality guarantee service, ‘phoneGO Care,’ and has recorded over 40% monthly revenue growth through various additional services for B2B subscription services for businesses, economical mobile phone plans, used device purchases, and repair services.

Furthermore, considering that approximately 90kg of CO2eq is emitted by a single smart device (as of iPhone 13) throughout its lifecycle, significant carbon emissions and environmental damage occur during the decomposition and leaching process of rare earth elements used in smart devices. In this context, ‘phoneGO’ has filed patents related to electronic waste recovery management methods and systems that monitor the amount of recoverable precious metals and reduced carbon emissions in its proprietary electronic waste disposal process.