Nigerian online store Taeillo has announced a $2.5 million funding round from Aruwa Capital, a growth equity and early-stage investor.
The online furniture startup was founded in 2018 by Jumoke Dada and now says demand has increased significantly for some of its most popular products.
Taeillo sources raw materials from local suppliers and turns them into furniture pieces such as sofas, beds, chairs and tables which it then sells to individual customers and businesses. This model allows it to execute as both a manufacturer and retailer.
Dada launched the company with seed funding of $165,000 from investors such as CcHUB Growth Capital, Montane Capital and B-Knight. They initially targeted businesses only, but their model changed to direct-to-customer as the Covid-19 pandemic ravaged throughout 2020 and reduced walk-in clients.
“It was more or less like opportunity met preparation because, at that time, many people were at home, and the leading furniture brands were not online to serve them,” the CEO said.
“Traditional showrooms were locked up too, so that was an opportunity for brands like us to position ourselves and prove that they could buy furniture online without necessarily going into showrooms.”
With the newly-raised funding, the startup hopes to reduce delivery time to a maximum of three-five days, saying that it will now be able to pre-manuftcurer some of its best-selling furniture before a customer places an order.
“We’ve done a lot of work with less. So now, we want to get outstanding talent that will take us to the next growth stage. “ Dada said.
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