Including Series C funding, the innovative start-up has raised €33 million since its inception in 2015. The company will more than double its 140-strong team of parametric designers, developers, researchers, production specialists, and marketing experts to continue to push the boundaries of furniture design and technology.
Tylko, the Polish digital-first furniture company, announced today the close of a €22 million Series C funding led by Israel-based Pitango Ventures and Finnish Evli Growth Partners. Since its creation in 2015, Tylko has served almost 60,000 satisfied customers and shows no signs of slowing down. The €22m investment follows a strong year for Tylko, with its unique approach to furniture design generating a 132% increase in sales in 2020 compared to previous years.
The new investment shows confidence in Tylko’s offering of premium design coupled with a user experience that puts the customer in control. The brand’s unique business model is premised on its belief that through investment in innovation and cutting-edge technology, the furniture industry can be swayed from ‘fast furniture’ towards durable, user-first products. Tylko incorporates sustainability into high-quality and well-designed products by embedding conscious consumption in everything it makes.
Angel investors in this Series C round include Brian Walker, former CEO of furniture giant Herman Miller, who had been advising Tylko before his investment, and Mark Williamson, COO of renowned US-based online classes platform MasterClass. As part of this investment, Rami Kalish from Pitango Ventures, Mikko Kuitunen from Evli Growth Partners, and Brian Walker will join the company’s Supervisory Board.
A future-proof business model
Tylko has seen sales rise by 132% during the pandemic, as its future-proof business model adopts an online-only, direct-to-consumer (D2C) and made-to-order approach. Individually designed by the customer from home, based on parametric design principles, each item is an individual solution. From each order, Tylko’s unique proprietary software automates the manufacturing process for its production partners: a directly scalable process.
These advantages have driven the €33 million in funding that Tylko has raised.
Tylko will use the Series C capital to find the next generation of creators and talent who will help to drive the company’s mission and vision to make ever-better products through industry-leading technology and a personalized approach to design.
Mikko Kuitunen, Growth Partner at Evli Growth Partners, Founder, and CEO of Vincit. “We are impressed by Tylko’s exceptional growth and ability to scale the company as a market leader, offering new, customized solutions within the furniture market. Tylko’s strong impact-driven vision and made-to-order business model drive the market’s transition towards more sustainable solutions. We believe Tylko is positioned at the forefront of such a transition by optimizing material use, production efficiency, and offering customers unique, long-lasting design.”
€36m in sales for Tylko during the pandemic
The successful Series C funding round comes from a strong year for Tylko. With the pandemic transforming homes into workplaces, schools, and beyond, our interiors have never been more critical. Tylko’s unique offering – environmentally conscious, customizable, premium design – has struck a chord with taste-conscious and environmentally-minded consumers.
In 2020, during the first lockdown, the company saw a 40% MOM growth in trade, with sales from June to August tripling compared to the same period in 2019. Last year alone, Tylko served over 30,000 satisfied customers.
The furniture market is one of the largest consumer categories. Its online penetration was experiencing a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 14% before the Covid-19 pandemic, creating market potential in the future. The total furniture market size in Europe and the US in 2020 was €341.1 bn. Tylko’s sales have doubled yearly since 2015, with 2020 seeing €36m in revenue and profitability in Q4.
Rami Kalish, Managing Partner and Co-Founder at Pitango “Tylko, has a huge vision to disrupt the furniture industry that has “frozen in time” with its outstanding technology and unwavering commitment to protecting Mother Earth. We believe in Tylko because its outstanding founding team excels in all the business parameters of scale, growth, and customer satisfaction while maintaining excellence in executing an inspiring ESG and sustainability vision.”
Create customer value where sustainability and durability are the norms.
Tylko is committed to developing contemporary products that positively influence people’s lives while preventing adverse environmental effects. The furniture industry contributes heavily to the climate crisis: it is responsible for over a billion trees falling yearly, alongside 670 thousand tonnes of the landfill in the UK and 10 million tons in the US. Despite the increasing importance of climate, this trend continues to accelerate.
Jacek Majewski, Co-Founder and Co-CEO Tylko, commented on the planned expansion: “Tylko’s vision has always been about putting the user experience first, to create a product that is perfectly designed, high-quality, and sustainable. We believe that driving sustainability into this huge industry can only be done by creating highly desirable products that will win over customers by their features rather than certificates.”
Constant product rotations and disposable furniture have become the norm across the industry, with poorly sourced materials compounding the issue. Tylko wants to transform this behavior with a perfectly adjusted product to the individual’s space and needs, easy to assemble and disassemble, and a hassle-free product experience. Every item is a durable, individual solution, requiring less consumption and helping the planet.
As part of the €22 million investment, Tylko will continue to invest in Its supply chain to develop and create new sustainable and durable materials suitable for the furniture industry. It has improved delivery, packaging, and logistics processes to ensure the most efficient supply chain optimization. An expanded network of collaborators (artists, designers, brands) to reach more people. Technologies that improve Tylko’s customer experience (AR, Space Recognition, Parametric Design tools). Tylko’s ambitious investment in people
From its founding in 2015, Tylko began to create a workplace where employees can create, develop and contribute to the industry. 2021 offers an enormous opportunity to rapidly expand its team, which already includes 140 specialists, investing in the best talent in the industry.
Mikołaj Molenda, Co-Founder and Co-CEO Tylko, added: “Right now, we need to invest in the best people in the industry to work with us and achieve Tylko’s mission – to help us build the value for customers and shape the future of furniture industry. To change our outlook on our home and the interior decisions we make. We offer the freedom to think, do, change, and evolve. Come join us as we work on innovative solutions for people and the planet.”
Global expansion and new products
Additionally, the new funding will support Tylko’s further expansion into markets beyond Europe and the launch of new product categories. Currently, Tylko’s portfolio consists of the original Type01 in Plywood and Veneer and its successor, the Type02, two product families where customers can configure anything from a bookcase to a shoe rack to a TV stand.
In late 2020, Tylko introduced a new product category with a new configurator version and extra features. This illustrates how easily Tylko can expand its product portfolio:, a whole new product family can be made with further software upgrades. Further product development in this way is planned for 2021.