- Home furnishing startup company Oliver Space announced recently that it raised $6.8 million in a seed round of funding
Oliver Space — a home furnishing startup company — announced it has raised $6.8 million in a seed round of funding to fuel its multi-city expansion. And the service has officially launched in the San Francisco Bay Area.
This round of funding was led by Mayfield Fund with participation from Abstract Ventures. And additional notable angel investors include Jana Messerschmidt and April Underwood (Hashtag Angels), Eventbrite co-founders Julia Hartz and Kevin Hartz, Michael Ovitz (Founder of Creative Artists Agency), Eric Wu (CEO of Opendoor), and several Uber executives.
Originally founded by CEO Chan Park — who is the former Head of Expansion and General Manager of Uber Asia — Oliver Space is aiming to remove “decision paralysis” and difficulty of design and exhausting trips to IKEA. And what distinguishes Oliver Space from other companies is the hyper-personalized concierge-like experience in the design process.
Park has had to move over 25 times himself and he realized what people need is assistance around designing space and seeing a curation of items to select without having to hire an interior designer. Oliver sells all sorts of home furnishings, including furniture, rugs, plants, and pillows. Plus it helps customers put them together through mood boards and video calls.
Christian Talmage is also a co-founder and the head of design at Oliver. Previously, Talmage was the VP of Products at Boom.tv and he was a hardware lead at StartX.
“The feeling of home is something that everyone deserves, regardless of whether you plan to be there for 6 months or 6 years. I had just accepted that if I moved around so much, it wasn’t worth it to invest in nice things for my space. The thought of picking out new furniture for each move that fit my apartment, coordinating the logistics of delivery and assembly around my busy schedule, and the high upfront costs didn’t make sense when I didn’t know where I would be in one year,” said Park.
Through Oliver Space, customers can collaborate directly with the Customer Experience team to decide on the layout and design of the space by providing one-on-one and personalized concierge services. And Oliver then delivers and assembles all of the furniture within a matter of days at a time that is convenient for the customer.
Oliver generates revenue through a low monthly subscription. And customers end up paying a fraction of the retail price for their items without having to spend money upfront to furnish their space.
“As our desires and expectations for a well-designed living space have only increased, there has been no change in the drudgery and hassle required to attempt to create that environment for young families and professionals,” added Rishi Garg, partner at Mayfield Fund. “Chan’s vision of a world free of wasteful and painful IKEA trips and moving boxes, with flexible, well-designed spaces available for all at the push of a button, has captivated us from the beginning and we’re proud to back him and his team on such an important journey.”
