Paris-based MyFab has just raised €5 million in a second round, coming from previous investor Alven Capital and led by BV Capital. The total amount invested in the company is now €7 million. MyFab – which is currently available only in French and German – is an interesting e-commerce play in that its mission consists of cutting out all middlemen in the process of consumers buying furniture.
According to the company big furniture brands – particularly those wearing the ‘design’ hat – often outsource the whole manufacturing process of sofas, lamps, etc. to factories in foreign countries and charge ridiculous prices for the end-product compared to the total cost of production. MyFab basically wants to provide a way for people to buy these goods straight from the source, by partnering up with factories from across the globe directly. The startup claims that this strategy can lead to reductions on furniture up to 90% off the average retail price.
MyFab has raised the additional sum to prepare for an international roll-out and also to expand into other verticals e.g. fashion. It currently has about 600 items in stock and works with some 80 employees located all over the world.
Long live to them!!!
It is also the same for designers’ cloth: D&G jeans for over $300… and made in China…. A shame!
a natural language domain name would have made more sense for everyone involved. myfab in the US sounds like a laundry soap company.
Laundry soap? I assumed they were a custom silicon foundry…
I’ve been designing my own stuff for a few years now, it’s nice to see others jumping into the “direct to customer” selling sphere.
Jon
Now we need a lulu.com for goods !
This is one startup I’ve always wanted to do (being from a mass-production engineering background). But then Ponoko decloaked…
i-Kea ? Sorry. Looks like a great site.
Great idea. I had wanted to do something similar but with Amish furniture. Problem is the Amish don’t scale well, so mass demand would have crushed the idea. Also the community I talked with was not keen on the idea since while they would not be directly involved in the tech, they would still be linked to it indirectly.
Furniture, Jewelery, and eyeglasses are some of the highest marked up items in retail. At least in the US.
The business landscape is definitely changing and being a middleman is not a good occupation in the future, least not for retail.
Wow, fascinating. Not!
Thanks for the post Robin.
FYI Alven didn’t lead this round. We were the historical investor, and participated to this round along with BV. We are really pleased to welcome BV Capital on board, they did a great job!
Congrats to MyFab and Alven for supporting them
Really cool stuff!
Please go read the 1st chapter of The Four Steps to Epiphany.
Smart but if everyone would start using these kind of companies, many people would lose jobs. Is this just in Europe or it ships to the US? Is it comparable to Ikea? My favorite is modern retro furniture.
I have to admit that I can’t work out whether this is a disruptive idea or a business which will be shut down by lawsuits. Now, there are VCs behind them so I guess they’ve hedged their bets on the legal front, but from my understanding myfab is basically copying other companies designs. Designs that are protected by IP rights I imagine… otherwise it’d be too simple! Am I missing something here?
It’s like buying a replica bag from China – possibly same producer and materials of the original, but illegal anyway.
Yes
It has no similarity with Ikea. Ikea sells their own products.
It s a good idea though. Why buy from retailers when u can buy straight from the producer? One thing puzzles me :7 milion dollars invested in it? hm…
Lawsuit in Germany. MyFab.com wants to grab myfab.de and my-fab.de
Lawsuit in Germany. MyFab wants myfab.de and my-fab.de
i like your post thats give me an idea