Narchie secures £475k Pre-Seed investment from investors including Simon Murdoch, Damien Lane and Adrian Lloyd

Funding

Narchie, the social marketplace app for homeware, dubbed the ‘Depop of homeware’, founded in March this year, announced today it has secured a pre-seed investment of £475,000 from experienced entrepreneurs and investors including Episode 1 Ventures’ partners, Simon Murdoch, Damien Lane and Adrian Lloyd. 

Founder 

Founder Harriet Wetton, has experience running a successful business, having set up Back For Good in 2018, a PR and Marketing agency who work with sustainable lifestyle, beauty and wellness brands. The idea for Narchie came about when friends asked Harriet to help them source homeware items for their homes. Harriet was frustrated by the time-consuming trawling this process involved, searching on sites like Gumtree, Ebay and Etsy. Harriet decided there was a need for a creative, inspiring homeware first platform where decor enthusiasts could buy, sell and connect. 

Growth

The Narchie team has a growing waitlist of over 5,000 users for the social homeware marketplace set to launch at the end of the Summer. Narchie has great potential being within a large & growing market and having an experienced team, with the former CTO of Depop, Massimo De Marco on board as a product and tech adviser. 

Use of funds

The raise will support ambitious plans to grow the product, engineering and community support teams. 

Sustainability

22 million pieces of furniture are thrown away in the UK every year. Narchie is challenging this “waste culture” with their new homeware marketplace app that promotes a circular lifestyle for homeware. 

The second-hand market has been booming in recent years, with expectations for it to grow and be worth $80 billion by 2029. Depop has been rapidly growing as a second hand fashion platform, with businesses such as Selfridges now offering services that enable shoppers to buy and sell vintage garments. However, the competition amongst platforms specialising in homewares isn’t as strong as fashion, despite a clear demand. Many find Gumtree, eBay and Facebook Marketplace uninspiring, and so there is certainly a potential gap in the market for Narchie to build a significant business that impacts lots of people and the planet in a positive way. 

Narchie App

  • Users will be able to create a fully shoppable profile that suits their individual aesthetic; listing items on a moodboard-style scrollable profile feed.
  • The explore page will show items and posts based on what each user likes, whilst highlighting posts from those with high engagement, and profiles similar to accounts they follow.
  • Users can search for specific items, sellers, styles and more, all in one place.
  • To sell, simply upload and list your items. Narchie will charge sellers a 10% fee on the total listing amount, including shipping costs.

www.narchie.com 

Safiya Marzook

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