Repartum

May 22
6 min read

Keeping devices alive is the most effective way to cut down on electronic waste. Repartum is a Vienna-based startup in the ClimateLaunchpad program that’s making this possible by scaling the supply of refurbished spare parts. We asked the team about the challenges of structuring complex hardware data, the CO2 impact of a single repaired appliance, and their vision of a future where "repair first" is the default choice for everyone.

Who are you, and what does your startup do?

We are Jessica, Amrit, and Anant, the founding team behind Repartum. Repartum is a digital circular-economy platform for refurbished spare parts recovered from defective or end-of-life devices. By connecting professional dismantlers and refurbishers with repair businesses, we provide the digital infrastructure needed to make device repair more affordable and sustainable.

The idea is simple: many appliances are prematurely discarded even though their individual components are fully functional. At the same time, many repairs fail because new spare parts are too expensive, difficult to find, or no longer produced by manufacturers. Repartum bridges this gap by turning professionally supplied reusable components into reliable repair options.

Unlike a peer-to-peer marketplace, Repartum works with selected professional suppliers such as repair businesses, refurbishers, dismantlers, and reuse partners. Our focus is to build a trusted supply network through careful supplier onboarding, clear condition descriptions, transparent warranty handling, and performance-based quality monitoring over time.

Our goal is to make repair more affordable, accessible, and sustainable.

What inspired your idea?

The inspiration came directly from hands-on experience in the household appliance repair industry. Amrit spent four years as a technician, handling everything from field service to PCB component-level repair. He saw a recurring problem: appliances were technically repairable, but the new spare parts were either discontinued or so expensive that the repair became economically unattractive for the customer. We realized that, while these functional components exist in dismantled machines, they weren't being systematically reused because they weren't visible or searchable.

So the idea for Repartum was born from this disconnect. We are building the digital infrastructure to make these existing spare parts accessible and usable for device repairs across Europe.

What problem are you solving, and why does it matter for a sustainable future?

We are solving a problem at the intersection of repair, spare part availability, and electronic waste. Currently, repair professionals waste significant time searching for affordable parts across a very fragmented refurbished parts market. This matters because when a new part costs almost as much as a replacement appliance, consumers choose to buy a new device instead, leading to unnecessary electronic waste and shortened product lifespans. By making reconditioned and reusable parts more accessible, functional components from end-of-life devices are able to extend product lifetimes. For a sustainable future, keeping components in use as long as possible offers far superior value over raw material recycling.

What does your business model look like? What materials, processes, or systems do you use?

Repartum operates as a digital circular-economy platform that transforms a fragmented market into a reliable supply chain for refurbished parts. We partner with verified, professional spare part suppliers who list their reconditioned and tested spare part inventory for sale on our platform. Our business model is based on a commission per transaction.

However, we are more than just a listing site. Our real value lies in our supply network and backend infrastructure. Working with our professional partners and their stock, we automate and streamline notoriously messy spare part data from various sources and suppliers into clean, consistent, and standardized listings with compatibility matching, dramatically increasing searchability and accurate part identification. We also implement a robust trust layer that handles verification, legal compliance, and quality monitoring of suppliers in addition to transparent warranty management. Combined, our proprietary processes and systems ensure quality, confidence, and trust when purchasing refurbished spare parts. This is the key value Repartum offers in creating a successful circular economy platform.

How do you measure your ecological or social impact?

Our ecological impact is measured by the number of refurbished parts sold and the number of repairs made possible through these parts that otherwise would have resulted in device replacement. We also utilize CO2e estimates by appliance category to calculate the avoided emissions from preventing the premature disposal of a device. For example, if a reusable spare part enables a washing machine to be repaired instead of replaced, around 270 kg CO₂e associated with the production, assembly, and distribution of a new replacement machine could be avoided. Meanwhile, the existing appliance is kept in use and stays out of the waste stream.

Socially, Repartum supports the local repair economy by creating additional income opportunities for small repair businesses, refurbishers, dismantlers, reuse centers, and social enterprises. Further, by making refurbished spare part sales easier to manage, the platform helps create new local jobs in professional refurbishment around testing, cataloging, logistics, and sales of reusable components.

What have been your biggest challenges, and what have you learned?

The sheer complexity of spare-part data is our greatest hurdle. From the outside, a spare part looks like a simple product. But one component can fit many appliance models, manufacturers use different part numbers and cataloging systems, and product data is often incomplete. Since refurbished parts are usually one-off items, it can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. But this friction is what motivates us: Repartum’s real value is not only in building a digital platform, but in structuring the cluttered and messy data behind spare parts.

Another challenge is trust. Buyers need absolute confidence that they are ordering the right part and that it is tested and compatible. This is why we focus so heavily on structuring underlying data and maintaining professional verification and quality monitoring processes.

Overall, we have learned that a circular economy does not work on good intentions alone. It requires excellent digital and operational processes to be viable and successful.

Where do you see yourselves in five years?

In five years, we want Repartum to be the established European digital platform for professionally supplied refurbished spare parts. While we are starting with household appliances in Austria and Germany, we plan to scale across the EU and expand into other categories such as electronics, power tools, industrial components, and other technical products.

Our goal is not just to build an online shop, but rather the infrastructure for repair and a circular spare parts economy. Our vision is that, when a device breaks, the first question isn't "Where do I buy a new one?" but "How can I repair this affordably?” We want to make repair easier and more economical so that it becomes the default choice over replacement.

A book, podcast, or resource that inspired you?

Rather than a single book or podcast, we are driven by the broader Right to Repair movement and the shift towards circular economy models in Europe. These movements highlight that the main barrier to sustainability isn't a lack of will, but a lack of infrastructure.

We are specifically inspired by approaches that treat repair not as a nostalgic ideal, but as a critical economic function with direct benefits to consumers. We are inspired by the practical work of repair businesses, refurbishers, dismantlers, and repair cafés who show every day that a circular supply chain is possible if the right parts, information, and processes are available to support them in their work.

Do you implement circular economy principles, and if so, how?

Yes, Repartum is directly built around circular economy principles. We aim to bring functional components from defective or end-of-life appliances back into use. Instead of recycling or disposing of entire devices immediately, valuable spare parts can continue to serve a purpose.

This model follows several circular economy principles including, first and foremost, reuse before recycling. A functional spare part creates more value when it is reused than when it is immediately broken down into raw materials. Second, when an appliance is repaired with a refurbished spare part, replacement is delayed or avoided, thereby extending the device’s lifetime and using existing resources more effectively. Finally, a circular economy for spare parts can only scale when inventory is visible, searchable, and trustworthy. This is exactly the digital infrastructure we are building with Repartum.