From Waste to Circularity: How Klyk is Tackling E-waste

E-waste is the fastest growing waste stream in the world. Old laptops gather dust in office cupboards, cables lie forgotten in drawers, and smartphones are discarded with every upgrade. The consequences stretch far beyond clutter. Unsafe disposal practices fuel health risks through open burning, sustain informal economies, and cause lasting environmental damage. Crucially, this also represents a potential revenue stream.

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Asad Hamir and Zahid Kjimji, co-founders of Klyk

For entrepreneur Asad Hamir, Co-founder of circular IT company Klyk, the issue became impossible to ignore on a trip to Tanzania, where his family is originally from. “I was just walking the street,” he recalls, “and noticed the discarded laptops and phones had asset tags from companies in the UK. I started researching… and discovered e-waste.” He was staggered by what he found. Electronic waste is growing five times faster than standard waste, yet only 22% is recycled. In the UK alone, as much as £70–80 billion worth of unused technology sits idle in households.

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Hamir was no stranger to the tech sector, having built and sold companies in the space, including one to mobile network operator O2, but - until his trip - e-waste had not crossed his radar. That encounter set the course for his latest venture, Klyk, a circular IT business designed to cut costs for SMEs, extend the life of technology, close the digital divide, and unlock untapped revenue streams. 

As Hamir explained on Profit Meets Purpose this week, the model is more than a solution to an environmental problem: it’s proof that sustainability and profitability can go hand in hand, with circular approaches unlocking margins well above industry benchmarks. For investors, it is a reminder that sustainable business models offer fresh ways to rethink revenue generation, and that impact and return are not mutually exclusive. 

Rethinking business IT

Hamir launched Klyk, with co-founder Zahid Khimji, after spotting that while refurbished tech was making its way into consumer markets, most businesses still defaulted to buying new. 

“We take a circular approach to IT,” he explains. “We replace a new purchase with a refurbished purchase, manage that asset in life, and at the end of the device life, take it back in, repurpose it… and drive efficiency all the way through.”

Klyk’s target customers are fast-growing SMEs, often just before or after a Series A round. For early stage founders, refurbished IT isn’t just about environmental sustainability. “They need to save money. They’ve got limited runway… it makes no sense for them to invest in expensive IT assets,” Hamir explains. 

Devices are sourced from returned stock, surplus inventories, or trade-ins. Each is refurbished, secured, and deployed with ‘white glove’ service. At end-of-life, Klyk collects, wipes, and either redeploys, recycles, or donates equipment.

“Very rarely will we have a device that’s completely useless,” Hamir says. “Everything gets reused in some way… and there’s a long tail of revenue at that end of life.”

Big Tech’s big conversation

Klyk’s growth coincides with a wider policy shift. Right-to-repair legislation, digital product passports, and consumer education campaigns are pushing the technology industry toward circularity. But Hamir argues that more manufacturers should be at the table. “Big tech has to be in the conversation and invested in the conversation”. 

Hamir believes that as demands on tech retailers rise, they will move into the second-hand market as it becomes more profitable. However, this brings challenges, since companies still control the cost of parts - such as replacement laptop screens - which limits accessibility. He argues that major manufacturers are still far from embracing fully circular models. To account for this, Klyk has built up its IT services arm to reduce reliance on hardware sales and secure more sustainable revenue streams.

Closing the digital divide

E-waste isn’t only about avoiding landfills; it also offers an opportunity to close the digital divide. Hamir speaks from personal experience. “I don’t think I’d be doing today what I’m doing if that computer wasn’t there. We didn’t have much growing up, but Dad got a computer. My friends would come round to play games, and I learned to open it up, upgrade it, change the chips,” he recalls. 

“The biggest travesty is that in 2025 in the UK… there are so many kids that just don’t have access to tech,” he says. “Today 25–30% are in digital poverty”. Ofcom reported earlier this year that 26% of households had difficulties affording communication services.

Klyk has pledged to donate 15,000 devices by 2030 and builds donation programmes directly into client contracts. The firm connects businesses with local schools, wipes and refurbishes machines, and delivers them ready for use. “We need to utilise the end-of-life equipment to solve this problem,” Hamir insists, “The need is huge”.

Bootstrapped to profitability 

Klyk’s environmental and social mission might attract impact investors, but Hamir deliberately resisted outside funding at first. After selling a telecoms business, he put in his own money. “I invested about £1 million to get it going. I’ve actually repaid about £300–400k… we’re profitable now as a business”.

This approach has kept the company lean, with inventory tightly controlled. The business model prioritises services revenue over hardware margins. “The hardware is the gateway,” he explains, “but it’s the service where we make our money.” 

Now, with profitability established, Klyk is raising its first external round. But even here, Hamir is selective, “I wanted fewer investors, with larger tickets, to attract people who can point us in the right direction and save us from mistakes.”

Advice for Founders and Investors

For fellow founders, Hamir reminds them to stay focused. He recalls a failed eyewear venture he attributes to “overconfidence… I lost track of that initial hustle”. The lesson is to identify your strengths and what they bring to the business. “I’m definitely a zero-to-one guy… I enjoy being in the trenches more than the boardroom,” Hamir says.

For investors, the message is to recognise that circular business models are  not just about green credentials. They represent an opportunity to capture profit at points others ignore. “Our profitability on hardware is about three to four times equivalent to business models in the space because of our circular approach,” Hamir says.

“We’re monetising every step of the way,” and, in the process, turning an environmental crisis into a story of access, opportunity, and growth.

Listen to the full episode here.