Growth
Lights, cameras… and anything else you need: How MPB is giving camera gear another shot through recommerce
- Growth
- Article
- 4 minutes read
Find out how the world’s largest platform for buying, selling and trading used photo and video kit is scaling a circular model for photographers and content creators worldwide with support from HSBC Innovation Banking.
- MPB’s recommerce model makes used photo and video kit more accessible while keeping valuable equipment in circulation for longer.
- With 80% of revenue from outside the UK, MPB needs banking infrastructure that supports international growth and multi-currency operations.
- Flexible funding, from an initial overdraft to a revolving credit facility, has helped helps MPB manage cash flow, secure equipment supply and scale its marketplace.
Growth in focus: Making global recommerce for gear a reality
For photographers and content creators, the right kit can unlock a new way to tell a story.
MPB is making camera and video equipment easier to access and easier to keep in circulation, a model that’s helped it grow to become the largest global platform for buying, selling and trading used photo and video equipment.
Proudly headquartered in Brighton, with recommerce centres in Berlin and Brooklyn, the business connects a global community of visual storytellers with trusted used equipment.
MPB’s recommerce centres are the heart of the business. This is where equipment arrives, is checked and verified by specialist teams, and is prepared for its next owner.
Kat Mitchell, CRO and Co-founder, MPB"The CCCs are really the heart of our business. That’s where all of the kit that we trade every day comes in, is checked and verified by our team, and goes out to buyers on the other side."
That operational engine turns individual pieces of pre-owned kit into a scalable circular proposition, one designed to serve creators across markets while keeping valuable equipment in use for longer.
But it does present logistical complexity on the operational and banking front.
Opening the aperture: Scaling recommerce across borders
International growth is already central to MPB’s story: 80% of its revenue comes from outside the UK. That creates a complex financial picture, with money moving across borders and multiple currencies to manage.
Matt Barker, CEO and Founder, MPB"We have a lot of money moving across borders, and different currencies to deal with, so having a banking partner in HSBC Innovation Banking that’s able to support across all the jurisdictions we’re in today and also in new countries and markets that we might go to in the future, is definitely really important."
For MPB’s finance team, a single platform offering visibility across its global banking activity also provides a clearer view of what is happening across the business.
Scott Ryan, CFO, MPB"Having a platform that allows me to see what’s going on across the world, from a banking perspective, is really, really useful."
Zooming out: Funding the next stage of recommerce growth
The relationship began with an overdraft facility to help MPB manage the short-term cash pressures that can arise during a fast-growth period. As the business continued to scale, the conversation evolved towards a revolving credit facility.
That additional flexibility has helped MPB fund the supply of equipment that underpins its marketplace, supporting the company as it grows and helping to propel the business forward.
MPB describes HSBC Innovation Banking in three words: entrepreneurial, supportive and collaborative. As the company takes its circular model to more creators and more markets, that combination of specialist support, flexible funding and international reach can help it keep the world’s creative kit moving.
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