Home ยป A platform that enables the circular sharing economy

A platform that enables the circular sharing economy

It allows neighbors to borrow and lend household items to each other and is getting popular in Europe...
Peerby

Peerby is a circular sharing platform founded in 2012 with the idea of connecting neighbors and reduce waste and emissions. It does that by enabling neighbors to borrow and lend household items.

Peerby started in Amsterdam, where 1 in 4 households is already a member. From there, they started expanding to other Dutch cities as well as to Belgium.

In May 2022, the company raised โ‚ฌ2.3 million in funding from Toronto-based tech and impact fund Loyal, the Dutch impact investor Shamrock Ventures, and existing shareholders, including hundreds of crowdfunders.

Peerby makes money by selling memberships to borrowers. Its revenue grew by 222% in 2021 and 200% in 2020, with supporters inviting their neighbors to join Peerby’s digital neighborhood sharing shed — which is now filled with over half a million shared products.

Also, 900 crowdfunders — who provided the company with a loan five years ago — were given the opportunity to convert their loan into shares as a result of the investment. A vast majority opted for conversion, and 40% percent of them even decided to buy additional shares.

Research by Milieu Centraal, a Dutch environmental research institute, concluded that consumers could reduce their climate impact by more than 25% by making circular choices, such as sharing and borrowing.

“The support from members, crowdfunders and professional investors confirms that everyone is eager for an alternative to today’s hyperconsumption,” Daan Weddepohl, the founder and CEO of Peerby, said at the time of the funding announcement. “We’ve always had social and ecological impact and the challenge was to become financially sustainable. Now that we have achieved profitability, the time is ripe to make neighborhood sharing mainstream.”

As of May 2022, the company claims that its services have helped communities to save 42 million kilograms of carbon dioxide and 833,000 kilograms of waste.

Takeaway

Dutch company Peerby is on a mission to reduce consumption and waste by making it easy for people to share the things they own. It aims to create a sharing economy that is more efficient and sustainable than traditional commerce. By making it easy for people to borrow what they need from each other, Peerby reduces waste and consumption while also building stronger communities.

As of May 2022, the company claims that its services have helped communities to save 42 million kilograms of carbon dioxide and 833,000 kilograms of waste.
Time to Implement
โฑ๏ธโฑ๏ธโฑ๏ธโฑ๏ธโฑ๏ธ
Cost to Implement
๐Ÿ’ฐ๐Ÿ’ฐ๐Ÿ’ฐ๐Ÿ’ฐ๐Ÿ’ฐ
* estimates

Action point

FOR PUBLIC OFFICIALS:
Supporting circular sharing in your municipality makes a lot of sense and if you could be the one leading such an effort, you can perhaps benefit from it, career-wise. Needless to say, that is also the right thing to do. In that sense, you could contact Peerby and explore the option of bringing their service to your community. Perhaps you could offer them some kind of support and incentive in order to skip the queue and launch their service in your town/city. It's worth trying out.

FOR BUSINESSES:
Peerby has just recently found a solid business model and is, obviously, looking for new places for growth. Perhaps that could be your opportunity to see what you and your company could do to help them reach more users, namely those in municipalities you are already serving or are hoping to serve. Chances are some money could be made in orchestrating this kind of deal that could also include marketing support and other services that would help users adopt Peerby's circular sharing platform.