Fairown, founded in 2018, is on a mission to empower more brands to shift from a linear to a circular economy, and in doing so put sustainability as a core part of business models. The young company bootstrapped to €1.2 million revenue, becoming profitable and has been expanding across eight countries independently. In the past 8 months, Fairown has grown its business volume by 3000% with a team of just 15.
The funding round of €4.2 million is led by the early-stage investor of Commerzbank Group, a leading German business bank, and also backed by primeCROWD, and STIHL Digital, the Venture Capital unit of STIHL.
Working with leading brands, retailers, and banks to empower a sustainable consumption and circular economy model, the Estonian startup provides a unique cloud-native platform that allows environmentally conscious businesses to offer their products for monthly subscriptions, and ensures a smooth product renewal cycle by collecting and utilising old products. As a result, Fairown gives international brands and retailers like Apple, Komplett, and STIHL the tools to launch products as service offerings, putting circularity and sustainability at the core of innovation.
A new generation of consumers that are more environmentally and sustainability minded have simultaneously started to value services and fast access to products more than ownership, leading to the transformation of many industries (notably music and film with streaming and subscription services). Regulatory initiatives like the EU’s Green Deal bring this trend to physical goods as companies need to shift from a linear to a circular business model.
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.
Roosna continued: “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.”
With the new funding, the young company will focus on establishing itself 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 the 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. 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.”
Fairown represents an exciting innovation within the fintech industry to contribute to more sustainable and conscious consumption. The company’s vision is helping to close the loop, and make sure less old products and electronics end up polluting our environment in landfill.
via https://www.AiUpNow.com
November 9, 2021 at 05:54AM by contact@bcurdy.com, Khareem Sudlow
