For the circular economy
An item’s value shouldn’t end at the first sale.
Most products already carry an ID on their tag or label. CirqTerra links it to a history that follows the item for life, the way a car’s history follows its VIN. Each time it sells again, everyone in that sale is paid automatically: the seller, the shop if there is one, and the brand that made it, which earns a small royalty on every resale. Things stay in use longer, and less ends up in landfills.
New product rules track what an item is. CirqTerra records what happens to it next.
- Pre-seed round open
- Founding partners forming
- Patent pending
Why we exist
Profit can power purpose.
Most things still have value when we’re done with them. But once an item is sold, its history is lost. Without proof of what it is and where it’s been, it’s hard to trust and hard to resell, so too much of it ends up in the trash.
Resale, repair and recycling already exist. But each runs on its own, and almost no one gets paid to keep an item going.
Every item kept in use is one less made new, saving the materials, water and energy behind it, and one less in a landfill.
CirqTerra connects resale, repair and recycling with one shared history, so the profitable choice and the right choice become the same choice.
How it works
See it work: one item, from first sale to recycling.
Start with what you know. A car’s VIN and history follow it for life. Watch how a car’s life works today and what CirqTerra would add. Then see the same idea on a jacket, a table and a computer. Each video runs about a minute and a half and needs no sound.
Illustrative examples with made-up brands. The car is a familiar comparison, not our market. CirqTerra starts with clothing and other durable goods.
You already understand this
Cars already have most of it. Everything else has none of it.
the VIN
a LifeCycle ID on the tag or label the brand already uses
a vehicle history report
a record that grows with every scan, sale and repair
a dealer trade-in
drop it at a partner shop, and your share is paid to you when it sells
the seller and dealer are paid; the carmaker gets nothing
the seller and shop in that sale are paid, and the brand earns its share every time
How the money moves
One sale. Everyone in it paid. On your terms.
Each party’s share is a set percentage, agreed up front. When an item sells, the payment splits automatically and the history shows who got what. Only the people in each sale are paid; earlier owners and shops aren’t paid again. The brand’s share is the only one that follows the item to every resale. The rest goes to whoever does the work: a shop that takes in, prices and sells the item earns its share, and a seller who sells it on their own keeps that share too.
One example split: a $140 resale
You drop off a jacket at a consignment shop, and it sells for $140.
Who’s who
- Seller
- the person who owns the item and is selling it, whether it’s the first resale or the fifth.
- Shop
- any business that sells it for them: a consignment store, thrift shop, online marketplace or retailer. Sell it on your own and there’s no shop share, so you keep it.
- Brand
- the company that made it.
- Repairer
- whoever fixes it, paid in full when they do the repair, not at resale.
The People & Planet Fund
CirqTerra will give 5% of its net profits to the People & Planet Fund, a nonprofit we’re setting up to pay for training in repair, refurbishing and other skills the circular economy needs. It comes out of our share, so it never costs sellers, shops or brands anything, and every dollar in and out will be on the record.
Buyers pay nothing extra. Every share comes out of the sale price, and looking up an item’s history is always free.
The brand's royalty follows the item. It's paid on every resale, wherever the item sells. The shop and seller shares shift with who does the work.
Repairs are never taxed. The repairer is paid in full, and a recorded repair helps the item sell for more next time.
Items come back. When an item is returned at the end of its life, the brand pays the owner a return reward, and the record reports the recycling to regulators for the brand.
We never hold your money. A licensed payment processor moves every dollar. CirqTerra sends the instructions and keeps the record.
Why now
New laws ask brands to prove what happens after the sale. Most records stop at checkout.
Resale is growing fast, and the rules are catching up. California’s SB 707 now makes clothing brands responsible for what happens to their products after they’re sold, and other states are expected to follow. Europe started down this road first, and brands there are learning three things:
It says what an item is, not what happened to it. Resale, repair and recycling are where the proof goes missing.
A product ID points to a record, but someone still has to keep it up to date at every resale, repair and return.
When tracking is only a compliance bill, brands do the minimum.
CirqTerra is built on those lessons. Each resale, repair and recycling step is recorded by the business that did it, when it happens. And every resale pays the brand a small royalty, so the record pays for itself. We start with clothing, where the market and the rules are moving fastest, then add furniture, electronics and other durable goods.
$367B
Expected size of the global secondhand clothing market by 2029.
$0
What a brand earns today when its product is resold. A jacket can sell five times and the brand sees nothing.
3 years
Until item-level records are expected for clothing, batteries, furniture and electronics in key markets.
California's SB 707 makes clothing brands responsible after the sale. Europe launches its shared product registry and bans large brands from destroying unsold clothing.
Item-level records required for batteries in Europe. Clothing rules expected.
Clothing record and repair requirements phase in. Rules extend to furniture and electronics.
Sources: ThredUp Resale Report; California SB 707; EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation and Battery Regulation. Dates reflect expected timelines and may shift.
What the record makes possible
Every scan builds something bigger.
Item discovery
Find verified secondhand items near you, across every partner shop and marketplace. The sale still happens at the shop.
Resale insights for brands
See which products hold their value, get repaired and sell again, item by item, so you can design for the second life.
Impact you can verify
Items kept in use, waste avoided and dollars sent to communities, counted from real records rather than estimates.
Who it's for
Which are you?
Brands
Earn a small resale royalty every time what you make sells again, and get the item-level tracking new laws require.
For brands →Shops, marketplaces and repairers
Pay everyone in one step from the system you already use. Repairers keep their full payment and build a public record of their work.
For shops and repairers →Shoppers
Find verified secondhand items near you, with their full history, across every partner shop. Coming soon.
Join the list →Investors and partners
The payment system is built and tested. We are raising to connect it to live payments with our first business.
For investors →Collectors, intake partners and recycling programs
Get paid for what you can prove, not what you estimate. CirqTerra records each item you take in and where it goes next, so your reports are ready for reimbursement claims and audits.
Let’s talk →A scan is a key, not a toll.
Scanning an item opens its record. No one pays to look.
Discovery is never for sale.
No one can pay to rank higher.
Accreditation is never a paywall.
A certified local repair shop stands level with the largest refurbisher.
Questions we hear
The short answers.
Do shoppers pay more?
No. Buyers pay the sale price, nothing extra. Every share, including the brand’s, comes out of that price, and scanning an item to see its history is always free.
If I sell something, how much do I get?
It depends on how you sell. Drop it at a partner shop and the shop takes its share for selling it, the way consignment works today. In our $140 example, you’d get $77. Sell it on your own and there’s no shop share, so you keep more. Either way, the brand’s share is small and fixed, and a verified history helps your item sell faster and for more.
Do past owners get paid when it sells again?
No. Each sale pays only the people in it: the seller, any shop or marketplace that handled it, the brand and CirqTerra. A repair pays the repairer in full, and no one takes a cut.
Does it work with new items?
Yes. The brand gives each item its ID when it’s made, so its history starts on day one. The first sale works the way it does today. CirqTerra then follows the item through every resale, repair and return after that.
Does it work with big marketplaces like eBay?
That’s the plan. CirqTerra runs underneath the places items already sell. A shop or marketplace connects to it once, and its sales pay out automatically. We’re starting with partner brands and local shops, then adding online marketplaces.
Is it only for clothing?
Clothing comes first. Then furniture, electronics and other goods worth reselling or repairing. Any item that can carry a tag or label can carry an ID.
What technology does it use?
Each item’s ID lives on a QR code, NFC chip or RFID tag, often the tag or label the brand already uses. It follows GS1 Digital Link, the global standard behind the next generation of barcodes. Scanning the tag opens the item’s history. A licensed payment processor moves the money, and CirqTerra tells it how to split each sale. Our payment system is built and tested, and the patent is pending.
Why change how resale works?
You can still resell the way you do now. CirqTerra adds what today’s resale is missing: proof of what an item is and where it’s been, and a reason for everyone, including the brand, to keep it in use. The longer things stay in use, the fewer new ones get made and the less goes to landfills.
Help build the record that pays.
We're forming our first group of founding brands, shops and repairers. If you make, sell, fix or fund things that last, we'd like to talk.