Estonian Fintech closes €4.2 Million Seed round to reduce waste

Founded in 2018, Fairown has developed a cloud-native financing platform that enables environmentally conscious brands to offer their products as services for monthly subscriptions. The company also ensures a smooth renewal cycle by collecting and utilising old products.

 

New generation of consumers have started to value services and fast access to products more than ownership, which led to the transformation of industries like music and film. Regulatory initiatives like the European Green Deal bring this trend to physical goods as companies need to shift from a linear to a circular business model.

Fairown empowers international brands and retailers like Apple, Komplett, and STIHL to launch products as service offerings, putting circularity and sustainability at the core of innovation.

Unlike buy now, pay later solutions, Fairown provides subscription financing with a smooth renewal process. “Helping companies move from a linear to a circular economy has been my passion and mission for 18 years already. I understand the complexity of it. With additional capital, our team aims to shorten the time-to-market for product subscription offerings and rapidly expand across Europe,” said Hendrik Roosna, CEO at Fairown.

Notably, Fairown has grown over 3,000% this year alone with a team of only 15. Roosna explained the background of such a remarkable growth in business volume, “We moved from 0 to 1 at an incredible speed. In October, our platform served transactions in a total volume of €5 million, climbing up from just €151K in January. We already have projects in the pipeline to achieve 500% growth in 2022. I can’t wait to see what other new perspectives the new year will bring.”

The round is led by main incubator, the early-stage investor of Commerzbank Group. “We strive to bring Fairown’s services to the German market by integrating Commerzbank’s financial solutions. The company has already shown that its customers are able to sell more products using Fairown while enabling a circular business model. We are happy to further support Fairown on its mission to make circularity the new normal,” said Moritz Schwarz, Investment Manager at main incubator.

Dr. Ronald Rapberger, CIO at primeCROWD, added, “We strive to provide professional access to start-up investments across borders by connecting outstanding European start-ups with European investors, Fairown being a prime example of this. With the new capital injection of our experienced and well-connected investors, I see a lot of potential for Fairown to continue its impressive growth trajectory.”

As a result of this round, the company will focus on putting its foot down in Germany and Poland, improving the product offering, as well as launching new partnerships with international brands. Currently, Fairown operates in 8 markets across the Nordics and Baltics.

Fairown has already established successful cooperation with a global brand STIHL. Benjamin Junghans, Director at STIHL Digital, said, “Flexible payment options combined with high-quality services from our certified STIHL dealers are a huge contribution toward the best customer experience. With Fairown, we have enjoyed these advantages during the last two years under the STIHL All-Inclusive program in the Nordics. Our next step will be adding renewal cycles to used products and giving them a second life. Fairown’s service for premium brands has obvious benefits.”

Circular economy is the key to sustainable and conscious consumption. This way, we can close the loop and make sure much less old products and electronics end up in a landfill.