Christmas usually comes with quite a few gifts and, with the return to routine, more than one becomes a return. In the era of online shopping, many will process their returns unknowingly through a Catalan startup with an international vocation: Rever. Founded in 2022 by Oriol Hernàndez and Màrius Montmany, the company has managed product returns worth over 100 million in 2024, a year in which it has grown by 700%.
The reverse logistics startup, which employs 40 people, has more than 500 clients, ranging from small e-commerce businesses to large companies, including the recently incorporated TikTok Shop in both Europe and the United States. The Barcelona-based company has a clear international outlook. After landing in France and Italy at the end of 2023, it has launched its online returns system in Germany, Benelux, and Portugal. Now, international markets represent 30% of Rever's turnover, and "the idea is that the 2025 expansion will allow this volume to increase to 50%," explains Hernàndez, two years after co-founding the company.
Rever has its origin in the rise of pandemic e-commerce or, in reality, much earlier. Hernández and Montmany, who already knew each other, spoke weekly via video conference looking for business opportunities, analyzing problems they detected from their own jobs. Hernández, from an international consultancy promoting logistics platform projects, and then from abroad in investment banking, in the retail vertical; Montmany, from the last mile team of the also Barcelona-based startup Glovo.
Rever's platform allows for a 20% reduction in costs associated with returns management"Between the two of us, we had the 360 vision, and we saw that the customer experience was broken. You buy online and receive it in 24 hours, but if you want to return it, days pass, with inefficient processes that are complex forretailers", highlights Hernández. Given the problem, they set out to facilitate and optimize processes, and built an MVP with three brands"It worked well, with good customer and business satisfaction metrics," with a then-manual system using a spreadsheet where the co-founders worked during nights and weekends.
After working with this system for several weeks, they got in touch with the Global Founders Capital fund, and shortly after decided to dedicate themselves full time to developing the project. It was in 2022 when they closed their first preseed round, of close to one million euros, and everything accelerated: in one month, a first version of the product was available; the second month, they started to have clients, and the third month, they entered Y Combinator, which represented "a transformative process at all levels". After joining the American accelerator, Rever closed a second round in 2023, led by Y Combinator, which reached 7.5 million dollars.
Since then, the startup has developed its platform and propelled its growth, hybridizing its software with financial tools for refund management. "The goal is for the customer return process to be as simple and as fast as the shopping experience," and Rever does this by acting at three key moments: before the purchase, recommending the right products and size to the buyer; managing the return, and suggesting product exchanges and gift cards so that the company does not lose the sale, and with retargeting after the return: "At that moment we know that they wanted a product, the reason why it didn't fit them, and that they have the money, which allows sending ultra-specific recommendations." These retention strategies "allow reducing the costs associated with return management by 20%, and convert up to 37% of returns into new purchases."
Through its system, Rever now works with 500 brands of all kinds: "We can serve any ecommerce in the world, no matter what product it sells or what size it is." Rever's clients, who do not disclose their billing data, use its platform by paying a subscription, which partially depends on the company's volume. In addition to expanding its number of clients, the company aims to continue boosting its international expansion. "In Europe, we can be leaders in this space because we believe that technologically ours is a winning product," according to Hernández. "Moving quickly into new markets will allow us to have a significant competitive advantage," which is why they are preparing their arrival in new countries.
The focus is mainly on Europe, with fewer competitors, but without ceasing to look at the United States, although some consolidated players operate there. However, "Rever is already prepared to compete with American products," so it does not rule out launching into Anglo-Saxon markets also during this 2025, with the aim of positioning itself as one of the main tools to make processing returns as simple as processing online shopping carts.
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