Many apartments are filled with non-durable fast furniture. Bern-based Pabio wants to fix this through its rent-to-own furniture model and personalized interior design to give customers a 5-star hotel comfort in their homes. With the launch in Berlin, the startup has also announced the completion of its seed round.
With Pabio, customers receive a personalized interior design proposal with photorealistic renders of their fully furnished apartment. Customers upload a floor plan of their apartment and take some photos, and Pabio generates a 3D model of their apartment. They can sign up if they like the concept, and Pabio will deliver and install all furniture. Customers subsequently pay a monthly subscription fee.
The startup also fully insures all items and offers optional add-on services like electricians and bi-weekly cleaning. Once the customer moves out of their apartment, Pabio takes back all the furniture, renovates it, and places it in a new apartment at a discounted price. Since all monthly payments go towards ownership, customers can pay the difference at the end of their subscription and own all furniture.
Tim Brady, partner at Y Combinator and former Chief Product Officer at Yahoo!, said: “It’s a great time to build a rent-to-own company because it’s difficult for millennials to pay tens of thousands of dollars upfront to get furniture for their apartment. Pabio makes this easy and affordable without compromising on quality.”
Building on its success in Switzerland, Pabio has launched in Berlin, Germany, this week, bringing its furniture subscription model to customers in the German market. “We did a thorough market analysis for different European cities and Berlin stood out as one of the locations where Pabio will work particularly well. We have set up all necessary partnerships for Germany”, says Carlo Badini, Co-founder of Pabio.
Earlier this year, Pabio raised a pre-seed round of $1 million led by Session.VC and Serpentine Ventures. The two firms, along with new investors Tomahawk.VC, Pioneer Fund, and DD Venture Capital have again invested in the startup, leading to a $ 2.2 million seed round closing. The funds will boost the startup's marketing activities and expansion strategy. After Berlin, Pabio plans to enter further German cities. Pabio today employs six people.
(Press release/RAN)
Photo: Co-founders Carlo Badini & Anand Chowdhary
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