Fy! secures GBP5m in funding round led by Hoxton Ventures

Submitted 16/03/2021 - 9:11am

Fy!, a home, living and lifestyle retail platform has secured GBP5 million in a funding round led by Hoxton Ventures, with additional investment from a number of angel investors. 

The funding will enable the team to focus on growth in international territories including the USA, Australia and the EU, and speed up the innovation of their proprietary, machine learning driven technology platform.
 
Fy! uses a combination of social content, machine learning and product knowledge to create a personalised, curated mobile experience for every shopper. They partner with over 2,500 independent brands and artists to bring their unique home and living products to a new audience of mobile native shoppers. These shoppers – 25 to 40 year olds who are underserved by traditional retail – are looking for inspiration and wonderful products for their homes.

The funding comes at a time when retail is undergoing generational and situational changes, where brick and mortar closures as a result of the global pandemic has accelerated online and mobile usage. Consumers have changed the way they shop and are expecting much more of online retailers – free fast shipping, a personalised, inspirational experience and a wide-ranging, affordable selection of products – all things Fy! offers. Consumers are also looking to buy on mobile - over 50 per cent of Fy!’s revenue originates on the Fy! mobile app. For partner brands and artists Fy! provides a much needed new way to get in front of and engage with global shoppers and grow their revenues.

Tom Beverley, Fy! Co-Founder, says: “At Fy!, we’re passionate about building a new way to shop for all the products people care about. We’re thrilled to add Hoxton Ventures to the team and chose them due to their strong track record in supporting UK startups scale globally. We will be using this latest investment to continue to grow internationally - the US sales already make up over a third of Fy!’s revenue - by expanding our assortment there and launching Fy! in a number of large European markets.”

Jonathan Thomson, Fy! Co-Founder, says: “At Fy!, we’re building a mobile platform that connects shoppers, brands and influencers in order to solve one of retail’s biggest problems – helping consumers discover products they love. We believe that solving this problem is key to accelerating the shift of bringing the emotional experience of product discovery online. Incumbent eCommerce players really struggle to innovate in this space because of legacy systems, so we see a huge opportunity to leap-frog the competition here. Our proprietary technology platform enables a thoughtfully curated and completely personalised mobile shopping experience that responds in real-time as users express their objectives and tastes through the app.”

Hussein Kanji, Partner at Hoxton Ventures, says: “We’ve been impressed by the discipline and approach the team at Fy! have taken in rapidly scaling a brand in the home and living space – since we first spoke to them in early 2019 they’ve 10x'd their annual revenue run rate to over GBP35 million-plus. The category is a huge one – over USD500 billion in size in the UK, Germany and US – with limited innovation and low levels of online penetration and we’re seeing significant changes in consumers’ shopping behaviours. Fy!’s approach and their growth convinced us they’re a team that can build a category-defining brand and product in this space and we are excited to be part of the journey.”

In addition to the funding, Fy! announces the addition of Benjamin Leaver to its executive leadership team. Benjamin joins as Chief Financial Officer and will be responsible for the company’s global Financial, Legal and People Operations. Ben brings a wealth of experience from previous roles at Naama Studios and Treatwell, as well as various non-executive director and advisory roles. 

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