With its online furniture e-commerce site, Taeillo, a Lagos-based firm that innovates around these concerns of time, quality, and price, has acquired $2.5 million in “expansion” capital from Aruwa Capital, a Nigerian early-stage growth equity and gender-lens fund.
According to a statement by Taeillo, it is an alternative for clients who must wait a long time between three and six months before receiving their furniture and incur significant expenditures while importing furniture due to fluctuating currency rates.
The statement said, “… we offer consumers aesthetically stunning furniture pieces at a portion of the importation price and with a 50% reduction in delivery time to around 4-8 weeks.
Jumoke Dada founded the online furniture retailer in 2018. It creates furniture items, such as sofas and beds, chairs, and tables, and sells them to both private consumers and companies.
The business, which serves as both a maker and a retailer, is comparable to Wayfair and the long-gone Made.com.
However, Taeillo has had to be real with its product offers by incorporating cultural features because it caters to a whole different demographic (it refers to them as Afrocentric furniture).
Dada’s platform had only businesses as its target market when it first launched. Investors like CcHUB Growth Capital, Montane Capital, and B-Knight contributed $165,000 as seed money for the initial product.
Also read, Taeillo: Meet the Furniture Company Leveraging Technology to reshape the Face of Contemporary Design
However, Taiello switched to a direct-to-consumer strategy in the middle of the pandemic in 2020, relying on investors’ advice and noting an opportunity in the market after some walk-in outlets ceased operations.
Taeillo had only sold 200 pieces of furniture in Nigeria before its pivot, so the choice turned out to be a stroke of genius.
Its pivot came with the introduction of the “Amakisi” table, one of its best-selling items, and a worktable ($29,999/$85), which garnered attention immediately and sold more than 1,000 units in six months.
The online furniture producer and retailer has since migrated to Kenya, added ten more product categories, and sent more than 10,000 pieces of furniture to more than 5,000 clients in both countries.
Taeillo tripled its income over the previous year in 2021, and as a result, it obtained a $150,000 bridge round from CcHUB Syndicate. But those improvements and growth weren’t without their challenges.
Taeillo has had trouble keeping up with demand due to the popularity of certain of its furnishings among Nigeria’s millennial and working-class populations; at times, product delivery has taken months.
Though it manufactures around 70% of its products and controls its supply chain to some level, the business nevertheless depends on independent producers that produce components before they are delivered to Taeillo’s warehouse, gathered, and shipped to clients.
With the company making up to 800 pieces of furniture every month, Dada claims that the reasons behind prolonged wait periods are related to working with these third-party sources, including suppliers and logistics services.
By pre-manufacturing some of its most popular pieces of furniture, such as the “Amakisi” table, Taeillo hopes to cut down on delivery times to around 3-5 days. Previously, the company had to wait until consumers placed orders before beginning production.
Additionally, the investment will help scale its “Pay with Flexi” program, which allows customers to purchase furniture and pay for it over time; over 200 people have already used it.
Also read, Review: Online Furniture Showroom
The business also plans to increase its marketing efforts for its augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) technology, which powers virtual showrooms.
Taeillo’s investment complies with one of Aruwa Capital’s investment goals, according to founder and managing partner Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes, whose company is the sole investor.
The three-year-old growth equity company, one of the few started and run by an African woman, completed a $20 million plus fund last week from Visa Foundation and other LPs to invest in ten businesses in the fintech, healthcare, renewable energy, and key consumer products for women sectors.
Taeillo was started and is headed by a woman, and 50% of its management team is female, in keeping with Aruwa’s gender lens investing approach, she said in a statement. “… The business [Taeillo] has maintained its revolutionary concept in a conventional brick-and-mortar industry, offering a distinctive value proposition for its clients in a rapidly expanding, underserved market.
Taeillo has experienced exponential growth by utilizing technology throughout the value chain, accomplishing feats that would have taken conventional furniture companies decades to complete.
Techbuild’s Take
Nowadays, you can purchase practically anything online, including big-ticket products like furniture as well as smaller items like books and CDs.
However, conventional in-store shopping is still preferred by several consumers when it comes to big-ticket products like living room furniture and appliances.
One size does not fit all, as is true with most things. Both techniques have benefits and drawbacks, and only you can decide which is best for you.
However, because of VR/AR, which businesses like Taeillo have included in their services to improve the client experience, customers may now choose which approach they want.
Online furniture stores have the wonderful feature of allowing you to browse thousands of collections and various types of furnishings.
You can shop whenever you want, day or night, and you are not restricted by location; you can shop from anywhere in the world, regardless of where you are or where the item you want to buy is located.
With VR/AR, you may discover something you didn’t know you needed because you are watching so many different things.
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