Deirdre Mc Gettrick. Image: Ufurnish.com
Co-founder Deirdre Mc Gettrick said she was ‘particularly proud’ that 30pc of Ufurnish investors are women.
Irish-founded tech start-up Ufurnish.com, which is based in the UK, has just raised £3.4m in seed investment.
Ufurnish describes itself as a search and discovery platform for home furniture and furnishings. The website brings together hundreds of thousands of furniture pieces and related products from large and small retailers based in the UK.
Founded by Deirdre Mc Gettrick and her partner Ray Wright, Ufurnish previously raised £1.8m in a pre-seed funding round three years ago. The latest investment brings its total funding to £5.2m since the platform was launched in 2018.
Some of the backers of the latest seed funding include Dublin-born entrepreneur Rosaleen Blair, principal at real estate business Tetrach Capital Ciara McElligott, former banker Sara Sullivan and KPMG partner Michele Connolly.
The announcement coincides with International Women’s Day and Mc Gettrick said it “feels really important” to not just draw attention to women founders but also women investors.
“I am particularly proud that 30pc of my investors are females and includes experienced businesswomen who have a strong record in building and growing businesses from whom I can draw down on advice when required,” Mc Gettrick said.
“It is invaluable to be able to reach out and share challenges and opportunities from my business with my investors. Often given their experience, they have insights over and above what I might have considered.”
Other backers in the furniture-focused technology business include Smurfit Kappa chief executive Tony Smurfit and Dalata hotel group co-founder Pat McCann – which is also the chair of Ufurnish.
The idea for Ufurnish was born when Mc Gettrick struggled to find the right furniture for her apartment, describing the experience as “very frustrating and disconnected”.
“Working long hours, the last thing I wanted to do in the evenings was trawl websites to find the right sofa or bedside cabinet, especially as I kept having to repeatedly input the same search criteria on every website,” she said.
“It was frustrating that the same retailers kept appearing in searches, but I wanted to search all furniture retailers.”
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