Fits.me dates back to 2009, when they have received their first round of cash from Arengufond, Webmedia AS and a number of angels. Since then, they have raised several more rounds and are currently one of the top startups in Estonia by the amount of capital raised.
The technology behind the company, robots that can take shape of any human size in order to show exactly how any given garment will sit on you before you purchase online, was always a little controversial.
Some people thought it was definitely the way of the future, however others were not quite so impressed by the developed and did not think the company stood a chance of success.
The fact that Fits.me did not show much a profit since 2009 did not help. Given that it has now been nearly 5 years and that an average startup is expected to make an exit before the 10 year mark, it is definitely time to show some profits, which Fits.me is yet to do. However we have been hearing from investors behind Fits.me and also employees that the company has made some significant changes in 2012/2013.
Namely, they started focusing on scaling the sales side of things. Got a new VP of sales, started putting money into marketing and today we have news that the efforts are starting to pay off.
In a story that originally appeared in Estonian business paper, Aripaev, (In Estonian) Fits.me declared that they have made an improvement in turnover of nearly EUR 2 million from 2011. They also mentioned that their profits (losses) for last year were just EUR 170,995, which is a lot less than the EUR 1.2 million number 2011.
As founder Massi Miliano and CEO Heikki Haldre told Aripaev: “For a very long time we were a technology development company, however last year was the first year when we turned Fits.me into a sales machine. At the same time this does not mean that our technology is ready. We are developing and investing into it continuously”
Heldre also compared Fits.me to many other companies such as Amazon that went through a long period without a profit. It was also mentioned that the main markets for Fits.me will be USA and Asia and that they are planning to go after USA sometime in 2014, after they have proven themselves in the European markets.
