Helsinki-based startup Mjuk has secured €2.5 million in funding to address the challenges of furniture waste and overstock in the industry. This funding comes from a group of investors, including Trind VC, Alliance VC, Superhero Capital, Lifeline Ventures, and angel investors, with €500K in equity loan support from Finnvera. The startup’s platform streamlines the buying and selling of furniture, focusing on sustainability by offering an end-to-end circular marketplace where responsible brands can sell quality furniture products to consumers, handling the entire process from pickup and cleaning to marketing and delivery. Mjuk intends to utilize the €2.5 million funding to expand its operations and become more financially sustainable while simultaneously enhancing its brand recognition in both the B2B and B2C sectors of the furniture re-commerce market.
“We are excited to welcome new investors Trind VC and Superhero Capital onboard, as well as thank our existing investors Alliance VC and Lifeline Ventures for their continued support towards a more circular economy in the furniture business. Having top European funds back us in a tough funding environment shows that our business and service models are working and have the potential to capture a significant share of the furniture re-commerce market,” says Rickard Zilliacus, CEO and co-founder of Mjuk.
Furniture is one of the world’s largest consumer segments and is by far the biggest category in classified ads by volume. However, furniture is creating a steadily growing proportion of the waste that ends up in landfills, shows a study from the Environmental Protection Agency. According to recent estimates, landfills might be filling up with furniture at unprecedented speed due to the decorating boom caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mjuk is an end-to-end circular marketplace, simplifying the process for both companies and consumers to sell furniture that is redundant. This includes second-hand furniture, overstock, and retailer returns that cannot be reintegrated into conventional sales channels. Mjuk handles the entire process, from furniture pickup and cleaning to photography, warehousing, marketing, sales, and delivery, which makes the buying and selling experience effortless. The success of Mjuk’s service is showcased by an unusually high and growing customer satisfaction score of 4.1/5, which is rarely witnessed in the furniture business.
Big real estate and companies like Wolt have also found using Mjuk to be a sustainable way of getting rid of redundant furniture during moves or renovation, while retailers want an easy way to clear out project or showroom furniture. Meanwhile, manufacturers want to lower their costs by selling prototypes or perfectly valid B-class items.
“The problem Mjuk is tackling is huge: millions of tons of furniture are burned or tossed into landfills every single year while perfectly good furniture gets disregarded due to changing preferences, relocation, and needs. Mjuk tackles this by giving a second life to quality products. At Trind, we see that Mjuk is exceptionally well-positioned to take advantage of the ever-increasing trends of the circular economy and conscious consumption, and be the leader in sustainable furniture retail,” says Reima Linnanvirta, Partner at Trind VC.
Mjuk’s way of combining efficient operations and technology into an effective re-commerce service is vital, as furniture is big and bulky, which makes storage expensive, and there are hundreds of thousands of different models and price point variations – which is larger than in any other retail category. By simplifying the process for sellers, Mjuk significantly lowers the chances of furniture ending up in landfills.
“We are happy to continue supporting the Mjuk team as they have demonstrated very solid customer traction in Finland and Sweden since our first investment. We believe that the market is only in its early stages, and we expect to see substantial growth in the furniture re-commerce market in the coming years. Mjuk has a clear ambition and capability to build the leading platform in Europe,” says Juha Lindfors, Managing Partner at Lifeline Ventures.
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