MYDECO SECURES SIGNIFICANT INVESTMENT TO FUND INTERNATIONAL LAUNCH
Released on: October 27, 2008, 2:56 am
Press Release Author: Jo Casley
Industry: Consumer Services
Press Release Summary: mydeco, the online intermediary for the home design market, announced that it has secured GBP7.35M in its second round of funding.
Press Release Body: mydeco, the online intermediary for the home design market, today announced that it has secured GBP7.35M in its second round of funding. Sofinnova Partners, one of Europe's leading venture capital firms, led the round in which other participants included SRPE, Amadeus Capital Partners and Burda Cross Media. This investment follows a seed round last year led by SPARK Ventures (who remain a major shareholder) and takes total funding to date to over GBP12.5M.
Brent Hoberman, mydeco's Executive Chairman commented: "We are delighted to have attracted a top quality investor group in which each individual firm brings real strategic value to the business and whose mix of nationalities reflects our own international ambitions. The closure of this latest financing round validates our achievements to date and will support the full commercial launch of the business later this year."
Alain Rodermann, Partner at Sofinnova Partners, added: "We believe mydeco has the potential to become a category killer in the home design industry. We are delighted to be backing a world class team with the vision and expertise and ambition to establish a global leadership."
mydeco aims to become the leading marketplace for consumers and suppliers of home design and furnishing, a sector estimated to represent over $200 billion of annual spending in the US and Europe but whose online potential has been barely tapped. The company's innovative technology revolutionises the shopping experience for consumers, allowing them to browse, compare and buy products from hundreds of top quality and specialist retailers. Since beta launch in the UK in February 2008 the site has attracted over 1.5m visitors.
About mydeco: mydeco was conceived and founded in 2007 by the management team behind lastminute.com, one of Europe's most successful ever online businesses. mydeco's highly functional website, beta-launched in the UK in February 2008, has won huge public acclaim for its blend of search aggregation, interactive planning and visualisation tools and social networking capability. The business has signed partnerships with top retailers such as Heal's, John Lewis and Lombok, while leading figures in the design world including Sir Terence Conran and Philippe Starck have joined the company's Design Board. mydeco is the trading name of By Design (UK) Limited.
www.mydeco.com
Web Site: http://www.mydeco.com
Contact Details: 83 Victoria Street, London, SW1H 0HW