Clippings, an online marketplace for sourcing furniture and lighting from premium design brands, has raised GBP2.8 million in a Series A round of venture capital funding.
Clippings aggregates premium design products from the world's top brands in one online marketplace, addressing a crucial pain-point in the discovery and purchase experience of high-end design for architects, interior designers and consumers.
The existing sourcing process for premium furniture and interior items is still manual and inefficient. Clippings is leading the charge in modernising and digitising this space by providing end-to-end e-commerce tools that facilitate the interior design sector. The company already features the largest selection of premium furniture and lighting products online, with over a million products available to buy.
Since its founding in 2014, by Adel Zakout and Tom Mallory, Clippings has consistently achieved more than 400 per cent year-on-year growth in revenue. The cash injection will propel Clippings further on its journey to becoming the go-to destination for discovering and buying furniture and lighting.
This investment round was led by European venture fund C4 Ventures, founded by the former vice president and general manager of Apple, Pascal Cagni. Fiona Dent, group managing director, Time Inc. (UK) also made significant investment.
Existing investors Spas Roussev (founding benefactor of the Serpentine Sackler Gallery) and Simon Clausen (C4 Ventures) will join the company's board of directors, which already includes Roussev, chairman David Begg (former MD and co-founder of design brand Tom Dixon) and Clippings co-founders Zakout and Mallory.
Zakout says: "Today's interior design industry is fragmented, inefficient and has yet to fully leverage the opportunities that online technology provides. We're creating a powerful digital platform to disrupt this industry and ultimately create a far better experience for its customers. Hundreds of design brands and thousands of customers are already part of the Clippings story and today we're happy to announce that C4 Ventures is joining us on that journey too."
C4 Ventures founder Pascal Cagni says: "At C4 Ventures, we have been privileged witnesses of how digital technology can disrupt global industries. We believe the interior design industry is ripe for disruption. Adel and Tom’s unique insight and experience with this market as well as the powerful yet user-friendly platform they have built makes Clippings uniquely positioned to digitise interior design and dramatically enhance interior designers’ day-to-day work.”
