e-waste
(6)
The Phone in Your Drawer Is CompAsia's Next Supply Chain
CompAsia built a regional business around the awkward life between a phone's first owner and the landfill - turning trade-ins, quality checks, subscriptions and resale into one circular system.
Circular
Circular is a Singapore-based, Y Combinator-backed startup that lets people and businesses subscribe to premium tech devices - iPhones, MacBooks, iPads, ThinkPads - for a flexible monthly fee instead of buying them outright. When a subscription ends, the device is returned, refurbished, and passed on to the next customer, aiming for roughly six subscription cycles before recycling. The model spreads the cost of a device across several users, undercuts retailer payment plans, and keeps working electronics out of landfills.
Revise Robotics
Revise Robotics builds AI-enabled robotic systems that test, refurbish, and resell used electronics, starting with laptops. Its machines slot into e-waste recycling and IT asset disposition facilities, where they inspect devices, wipe drives, photograph units, and list them on online marketplaces - hundreds of laptops a day, across any model, manufacturer, or operating system, without human intervention. Founded in 2024 by Rupesh Jeyaram and Antonio Monreal and backed by Y Combinator (W25), the New York company aims to unlock the residual value trapped in discarded electronics and keep more devices out of landfills.
NorthLadder
NorthLadder is a Dubai-founded technology company that runs an auction-driven trade-in and buy-back platform for pre-owned electronics. It gives consumers instant cash for old phones and gadgets - with doorstep pickup and certified data wipes - while offering telecom operators, retailers, e-commerce players and OEMs a white-label, end-to-end trade-in engine that connects devices to a network of global buyers. By automating assessment and valuation, NorthLadder aims to unlock the residual value of used devices and extend their lifecycle in support of circular-economy goals.
Reconext
Reconext is a global aftermarket lifecycle services company that takes returned, broken, or retired electronics - phones, laptops, set-top boxes, AI servers, point-of-sale gear - and gives them a second life. Through repair, refurbishment, testing, trade-in, asset recovery, and IT asset disposition, the company keeps devices and components circulating instead of heading to landfill. Headquartered in Grapevine, Texas and operating roughly 22 facilities across the Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific, Reconext serves manufacturers, carriers, retailers, insurers, and data centers.
Andre Weiglein
Andre Weiglein is the President and CEO of AER Worldwide, an IT asset disposition (ITAD) company he founded in 1996 and has led for nearly three decades. Based in California, AER operates globally across North America, Europe, and Asia, providing certified asset recovery, secure data destruction, electronics recycling, and reverse logistics for enterprises. Under Weiglein's leadership, AER has grown to approximately 175 employees, ~$48M in revenue, and maintains R2/RIOS and E-Stewards certifications — positioning the company as a responsible, compliance-focused leader in the growing ITAD industry.