Back Market hands CEO job to CFO Clément Petit after 12 years under its founder

Back Market is changing chief executives for the first time since it was founded. Clément Petit, the Paris-based refurbished-electronics marketplace's chief financial officer, will become CEO on 1 September 2026, while founder Thibaud Hug de Larauze moves into the role of Executive Chairman. It is the company's first leadership change in twelve years.

The reshuffle caps a year in which Back Market says it reached profitability worldwide, having already turned profitable in Europe in 2024. For a company that raised hundreds of millions of euros in venture funding and has spent over a decade chasing scale, the shift from founder-led growth to a more operational, numbers-driven CEO marks a distinct new phase.

From balancing the books to running the company

Petit joined Back Market in November 2020 after a stint at the fashion e-commerce group Veepee. As CFO, his job was to get the marketplace's finances in order and push it toward sustainable profit, a mandate he appears to have delivered on. Back Market reported €440m in revenue for 2025, with gross merchandise volume reaching €3bn for the year, up 32% on 2024.

Hug de Larauze, who started the company in 2014 with co-founders Quentin Le Brouster and Vianney Vaute, said the business now needs an organisation that can move faster as it grows in scale and ambition. He will keep a seat at the top as Executive Chairman, focused on long-term strategy rather than day-to-day operations.

"As Back Market continues to grow in both scale and ambition, we need an organisation capable of moving faster and aiming higher," Hug de Larauze said.

Petit, for his part, framed the handover as continuity rather than a break from the founder's vision.

"Back Market's strength has always been collective: our team, our mission, and our shared conviction that we are rewriting the rules of a global industry," Petit said. "Together with Thibaud and the entire team, our priorities are clear: to continue growing our marketplace while building the next stage of our business model, making refurbished electronics the global standard."

Why it matters beyond Back Market

Founder-to-operator CEO transitions are still relatively rare among Europe's longer-running consumer tech companies, many of which are only now reaching an age where the original founder's departure from the top job becomes a live question. Back Market's case stands out because it is pairing the change with a stated profitability milestone rather than a funding event or an acquisition, suggesting the move is about execution discipline rather than crisis management or an exit.

The company has not raised new capital since closing a $510m Series E round in January 2022 at a roughly €5.1bn valuation, led by Sprints Capital with participation from Eurazeo, Aglaé Ventures, General Atlantic and Generation Investment Management. Reaching global profitability without a fresh round reduces the pressure to raise again on a down valuation, a problem that has hit a number of European consumer marketplaces since 2022.

Back Market now operates in 17 countries with around 700 staff spread across seven offices, including Paris, Bordeaux, New York, Berlin, Barcelona and Tokyo. It certifies independent refurbishers and sells warranties and buyer protection on used phones, laptops and tablets, positioning refurbished devices as a cheaper and lower-waste alternative to buying new.

What Petit inherits

The incoming CEO takes over a company that is trying to move beyond pure online retail. Back Market said last year it plans to open physical stores in France and the United States, a market where the bulk of electronics purchases still happen in person rather than online. It is also rolling out its own repair service, extending its reach across more of the device lifecycle rather than just resale.

Petit's challenge will be converting that profitability into faster growth without the comfort of another large funding round to cushion mistakes. Back Market has previously said its ambition is for refurbished devices to become the default choice for electronics buyers rather than a niche alternative to new phones and laptops; whether that happens under a CFO-turned-CEO, rather than the founder who built the company's brand, is now the test facing Back Market's next chapter.