If you think of Pabio as aStitchFix for furniture in Europe, you are probably right. The company started in Switzerland a couple of years ago with a mission to stop people from buying disposable Ikea stuff for a two-year stint in an apartment, replacing it with well-styled, well-thought-out interior design suggestions and robust, reuse and recycle furniture. It raised a full drawer of cash to expand its marketing and reach into additional European countries.
Customers can request a personalized interior design proposal with realistic renders of what their apartment will look like with Pabio. Pabio creates a 3D model of their apartment, furniture and all, after they uploaded a floor plan and took some photos. If the customer likes it, they can subscribe to their furniture for a monthly fee.
Most people wouldn't pay for an apartment sharing service if it looked like they lived there. Maybe there is something there. Carlo Badini is the co-founder and CEO of Pabio. We came up with the idea of marrying interior design with furniture subscription to make nice living affordable for people who only rent for a couple of years.
Ikea tries to portray itself as sustainable, but most furniture is never recycled. The business model for fast furniture is how much can we sell and how frequently. It is the opposite in our case. Pabio offers high-quality stuff that can last for decades because we offer a subscription. Furniture used to be of high quality. The dining table in your grandparents house is 20 years old. Before fast furniture became a trend, that was the point of furniture. We are a new take on the idea that furniture should last a long time.
We would take all the furniture back when you move away from us. We will put it in a new apartment. Badini says that the process of putting furniture into a new apartment at a discounted price is being improved. When the furniture is fully worn down, we would recycle it.
The price for the service is meant to be competitive compared to buying your own furniture, which can be as low as US$225 per month.
We want to be at a maximum of 15% of the rent you are paying.
A rent-to-own company is a great idea. It is very hard for young people to pay a lot of money up front for furniture. Tim Brady is a partner at Y Combinator.
Pabio raised $1 million in a pre-seed round. The round has now been increased toPukiWikint $2.2 million, which includes Session.VC, Tomahawk.VC, Pioneer Fund, andDD Venture Capital.
