Estonian Trind VC invested in the Finnish marketplace for second-hand furniture Mjuk

Estonian investment company Trind VC led €2,5M round of the Finnish marketplace for buying and selling second-hand furniture Mjuk. Finnish Superhero Capital, existing backers Norwegian-Swedish investment firm Alliance VC and Helsinki-based VC and private equity firm Lifeline Ventures, and business angels also joined this round. Finnish state finance company Finnvera provided the startup with €0,5M of equity loan. 

Founded in 2019 by Rickard Zilliacus, Max Heino, and Casper von Pfaler, Mjuk is an end-to-end furniture circular marketplace. The startup offers second-hand furniture, brands' overstock, and retailer returns. Mjuk's team picks up, cleans, makes photos, stores, sells, and delivers furniture pieces. The team will also grade the furniture on a scale from new to worn before sale, documenting any wear and tear. A seller gets 55% of the value per sale up to €588 and 75% of the value that exceeds €588. 

Among the company's clients are retailers who want to clear out projects or showroom furniture, real estate companies, and manufacturers who want to lower their costs by selling prototypes or B-class items. 

According to the startup, it has grown its revenue every year by 100% year-on-year, since 2019. The company has sold already 25K pieces of furniture. Currently, Mjuk operates in Finland and Sweden.

Mjuk will use the investment to accelerate growth and strengthen the brand’s reputation in both B2B and B2C segments. After this deal, Trind VC’s partner Reima Linnanvirta will become Mjuk’s board manager.

Trind Ventures is an early-stage venture fund with an initial ticket of €0,1-1,0M, and follow-on investments up to €5M per company. The partners are Joel Aasmäe, Ivar Siimar, Kimmo Irpola, Taavi Lepmets, and Reima Linnanvirta. In September 2022, the company closed Fund II with a capital of €55M. It aimed to invest in 30–40 startups in four years. Fund II has already invested in Barcelona-based event management software Xceed, an Estonian platform for buying and selling second-hand fashion goods Yaga, Spanish home services marketplace Webel, German marketplace of luxury designer bags SACLÀB, and UK B2B database provider Royalty Range. As TrindVC announced at the end of August, it would invest in four to five early-stage startups in the next six months.