The used camera market is booming if a recent cash investment of £49.8 million (~$69 million) that MBP.com just raised is any indication. The company claims to “recirculate” about 300,000 pieces of equipment a year and expects to pass $139 million in revenue in 2021.
The latest funding round, classified as a Series D as noted by TechCrunch, was led by Vitruvian Partners with participation from current investor Action Capital, Mobius Equity Partners, Beringea, and FJ Labs. The Brighton-based online used goods retailer says it plans to use the investment to expand into more markets and extend its marketplace — MBP currently has offices in Brooklyn and Berlin in addition to its home base of Brighton — to serve a wider range of content creators.
In total, MBP has raised about $91 million since it was founded in 2011 with the lion’s share of that coming in this most recent round. It has declined to state its valuation, but this particular investment is the largest ever for a startup out of Brighton.
“This funding round is a major milestone for MPB, culminating a decade of strong performance and a vision to make great kit accessible and affordable,” Matt Barker, the founder and CEO of MBP, said in a statement. “With the backing of Vitruvian Partners and those reinvesting in our business, we can accelerate our US and European growth strategy at scale, profitably. Photography and videography are intrinsic to societies and cultures all over the world, and at MPB we have created a circular model that offers everyone the chance to be visual storytellers and content creators in a way that’s good for the planet.”
The entire used goods market has apparently been booming amidst the pandemic as people are cleaning out their homes to make room for the work-from-home landscape and make a little bit of money as a bonus. This apparently has extended to the very specific niche of content creation devices such as cameras and photographic equipment, the market in which MBP specializes.
MBP’s success isn’t one that exists in a vacuum either. At the end of 2020, KEH published a blog calling it a “banner year” for the organization, a rarity when so much of the global economy was in shambles.
“It seems that word has finally spread to the masses that buying brand new is played out, and that buying used is where it’s at. And that’s certainly music to our ears—when it comes to used gear, we’ve been the standard-bearers since 1979,” the company wrote in a blog.
With the resurgence of film and because used equipment is always more cost-effective than buying new, the success of KEH and the jump in value to MBP isn’t that hard to believe.
Image credits: Header image licensed via Depositphotos.
Author: Jaron Schneider
Source: Petapixel
