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Electronics manufacturers, much like any company putting together a product that relies on parts from different suppliers, often find themselves with excess stock of components. Think conductors, regulators, transceivers and similar.
Disposing of that excess stock can be an environmental challenge. In fact, it’s well documented that plenty of e-waste ends up in countries like Ghana with catastrophic results on the environment and the people living there.
This is despite the inherent value that many of those components have. Oftentimes, they’re new and can be used by other manufacturers. The challenge is making that equation work both in favour of the buyer and the seller. One wants components at a cutdown price, the other is looking for enough cash to justify the effort put into selling the stock.
Agiga, a French startup we met at CES, is offering a solution that suits all parties. The company has launched a marketplace in which it works out the fair value of a component. Sellers can sell their excess stock with the confidence that they’re getting fair value and buyers get access to discounted prices. Agiga charges a small transaction fee per deal and acts as a mediator, ensuring that stock is available before a deal takes place.
It’s an encouraging model that brings us one step closer to a circular economy, but, despite what Agiga currently claims on its website, it’s not a circular economy in itself. Right now, after a component has outlived its purpose, it might still end up in a landfill; until that last mile is addressed, no economy can truly be called circular.
That being said, given how much the planet needs more solutions that address the growing amounts of e-waste being generated, the company certainly has its work cut out for it. We spoke to Clément Pequay, Commercial Director, to learn more. Interview below, edited for clarity.
The company was founded in 2020. We are a French company based in Lyon. Currently, we have seven employees and, between the seven of us, we speak seven languages. We are French but we have many international ambitions. We started our activity in France and then expanded to Spain, Germany and Italy, and now we want to expand further abroad.
The founder of the company worked for 30 years in the electronics distribution business and he learned from his many customers that they had brand-new electronic components that were trashed because they needed the space in their warehouses. With his son, who’s a web developer, he had the idea to launch a marketplace that would enable electronic companies to sell and buy electronic components from the circular economy.
Nowadays we provide buyers and sellers with certifications attesting that they buy components from us, which they can use to validate the corporate sustainability credentials. This is particularly important given that the industry is not nearly as transparent as it needs to be about how materials and components are sourced.
On a side note, I still find it baffling that companies would procure or produce a component from scratch despite an equal part already being available in a marketplace like ours.
Most of all we need support. We need support from industries, from local government and private organisations, to help change how businesses think about acquiring their components. In B2C there’s already a lot of interest in purchasing second-hand parts, but not so much in B2B. We need help changing people’s minds.
