Hamelyn

Hamelyn is a Madrid-based e-commerce and re-commerce company operating in the second-hand market for cultural products: books, music (CDs and vinyl), films (DVD, Blu-ray, VHS) and video games. On the supply side, sellers scan an item's barcode or ISBN through the website or mobile app (available on Google Play and the App Store) and receive an automatically calculated, instant price; Hamelyn then arranges free home pickup anywhere in Spain, checks the items for condition at its warehouse and pays the seller within 24 hours by bank transfer or PayPal. On the demand side, the company resells reviewed and condition-graded stock through its own storefront and major marketplaces, positioning refurbished cultural goods as a lower-cost alternative to new items.

The company states it accepts novels, essays, comics and children's and young-adult literature carrying an ISBN or barcode, while excluding encyclopaedias, dictionaries and textbooks due to low turnover in the second-hand market. In September 2024 it launched Tienda.Hamelyn (Shop.Hamelyn), a B2C-to-B marketplace for second-hand music, films and video games, broadening its catalogue beyond its original focus on used books and films. Hamelyn also runs a book donation programme with associations to widen access to reading, music and film.

Hamelyn is a brand operated by HAMELYN TECHNOLOGIES SL (CIF B01658244), with a registered office at Calle de los Llanos de Jerez 1, 28823, Madrid, Spain.

Founding story

Hamelyn was founded in Madrid by Valentín Izquierdo and Federico Aguilar Calvo around 2020, with the stated aim of making culture more accessible while promoting a more responsible consumption model for books, music, films and video games.

Business model

Hamelyn buys used cultural products directly from consumers at an algorithmically determined price rather than intermediating peer-to-peer listings, takes ownership of the inventory, grades and stores it, and resells it to buyers through its own site and third-party marketplaces. Acquisition costs are set by an in-house pricing system, and free logistics (pickup and shipping) are absorbed by the company rather than charged as commissions to sellers.

Revenue comes from the spread between the price paid to consumers for second-hand books, music, films and video games and the resale price of those graded items on Hamelyn's storefront and on external marketplaces. Sellers pay no shipping fees or listed commissions.

Traction

The company reports more than one million reused products circulated through its platform and thousands of positive customer ratings across the sales channels where it is present. A third-party business-data profile estimates annual revenue under $1M and roughly 32 employees. Backers describe the business as an established and profitable alternative in the second-hand cultural products sector.

Latest developments

In 2025 Hamelyn closed a round of over €2 million led by Inclimo Climate Tech, with participation from Trind VC, business angels including members of COREangels Barcelona, family offices and existing shareholders. The capital is earmarked for expansion in France, Italy and Portugal, infrastructure for its newly launched Mexican subsidiary, hiring across product, technology and operations, product-acquisition campaigns, and AI-driven personalisation, demand prediction and analytics tools, following the completion of an automation and robotics project at its Coslada logistics hub.