Pabio: Furniture-subscription model on the ascent

Last year, Bern-based Pabio entered the market with its rent-to-own business model, offering individuals a personalised interior design with high-quality furniture rental service. Customers obtain up to USD 20’000 of new furniture without upfront. The process of obtaining the desired home design is straightforward: prospective customers send their floor plan to Pabio for the team to customise the home setting using a 3D model. Upon concluding the contract, Pabio and its partners deliver and install the furniture. The subscription allows customers to pay off monthly payments for up to 4 years. The startup also addresses customers that want to upgrade their existing homes – partially or entirely.

Currently, Pabio collaborates with multiple partners, including Pfister, Baloise and CreditGate, to help them achieve their vision of enabling everybody to feel at home and relaxed in their homes. “In this fast-paced world, a home is an important place to relax, and thus it should feel and look comfortable”, says Carlo Badini, Co-founder and CEO of Pabio. “The outbreak of COVID-19 also saw many people spend most of their time at homes; we want to help them design their homes with a cost-friendly approach.”

The service is currently available in Switzerland with multiple customers across the country. According to Badini, the interest is growing. Since the official launch in March 2021, the company has generated over one million Swiss francs in revenues with a 100 per cent month on month growth.

In May this year, the Bern based startup completed a significant pre-seed round from high net worth business angels and top investors such as session.vc and Swiss startup Group. Recently with the entry into the Y Combinator accelerator (YC), the startup obtained additional funding. Being the world’s leading accelerator based in the US, YC also offers Pabio a platform to expand its network, attract new investors, and explore the US market.

Badini and co-founder Anand Chowdhary (CTO) plan to expand their concept to other European cities by the end of this year and later to the US. The company is raising additional capital in a new financing round that starts in August this year. The new funds will enable the startup to setup up new collaborations, win new customers and accelerate its expansion plans.

(RAN)