Brosa raises $5 million to expand offline
Online furniture company, Brosa, has secured $5 million in a Series B funding round, as it looks to expand offline and grow its team, while strengthening its existing technology platform and vertically-integrated model.
The investment caps off a period of rapid growth at Brosa, which over the past two years has increased the number of full-time employees from 25 to 70, designed and launched over 2,000 new products, built out its own 10,000 sqm distribution centre and strengthened its own delivery capabilities.
Meanwhile, order volume from customers has grown more than 10 times.
The Series B round was funded by the original Series A investor AirTree, as well as Bailador Technology Investments and BMY Group.
Brosa has said it will use the capital injection to expand its offline footprint, launching bricks-and-mortar Brosa Studios across the country.
The store concept will be similar to the company’s existing by-appointment-only showroom in Melbourne, which offers customers the opportunity to consult one-on-one with professional stylists.
Brosa founder and CEO Ivan Lim (pictured above, middle) said he saw an opportunity to expand offline after noticing the positive customer response and lucrative revenue per sqm of the first store.
“The Brosa Studio format has had an amazing response from customers since we opened in Melbourne close to a year ago,” Lim told Internet Retailing.
“During that time we’ve taken a lot of learnings from what customers are looking for and what helps them on this buying journey of creating a beautiful home. We’ll definitely be applying those learnings to any future Brosa Studio openings.”
Lim said the company is considering a number of locations to open new Brosa Studios, including Sydney.
“We like to be where our customers are and we definitely have a lot of customers outside of Melbourne who have been waiting for us to open a Brosa Studio in their city. We’ve even had some customers from interstate stop by the Studio for an appointment during a weekend away in Melbourne so the demand is definitely there,” he said.
Brosa will also use the capital to strengthen its vertically-integrated model and built-for-purpose technology platforms.
“The features we’ve been building have had an enormous capacity to reduce friction for customers in what is typically a very painful process of buying furniture, so we’re going to continue focusing on that,” Lim said.
“There are plenty of new things to come and we’re excited to continue spearheading new ways to make furniture shopping more painless for customers.”
Andrea Kowalski, principal at Bailador, said the $13 billion furniture industry is ripe for disruption from an online competitor like Brosa.
“The Brosa team has made excellent use of technology to optimise the design, build and delivery of furniture and as a consequence has created a compelling customer experience,” she said.
Hiring senior talent with solid backgrounds in software engineering, technology, and the furniture industry is also a key focus for the business going forward.
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