Japan’s Shelfy, which connects interior designers with business owners, secures funding

Shelfy, a Japanese startup that matches business owners with interior design companies, received an investment from East Ventures (Disclosure: East Ventures also invests in Tech in Asia, read our ethics statement here) of an undisclosed sum. The Bridge is reporting that the investment was in the tens of millions of yen (somewhere in the vicinity of US$85,000 to US$850,000). The round comes just four months after Shelfy’s launch in July, and will be used to hire additional team members.

While shopping for something like clothing can be comparatively simple – visit the local mall or department store, window shop until something catches your eye, grab it off the rack, and cash out at the register – choosing an interior designer is a much more involved process. You’d probably start with an online search of nearby firms, head to multiple offices and showrooms (last I checked, there wasn’t an interior design firm shopping mall), select your top two or three for estimates, negotiate the price, and then finally select the winner. That all goes without saying that building or remodeling a business costs exponentially more than a shirt or new pair of shoes – and takes a lot more time than a wardrobe change.

With Shelfy, business owners can browse example designs by category (food and drink, beauty salon, apparel shop, clinic, school, office, and “other”). If the user comes across an example that matches their desired aesthetic, they simply provide details about their place and request an estimate. Users can also select multiple examples to compare quotes and select the most affordable option. At present, Shelfy serves Japan’s central Kanto region (which includes the greater Tokyo area).

For business owners, Shelfy is entirely free to use. When a contract is signed, the interior design firm pays Shelfy a JPY 100,000 (US$850) matching fee. The startup hopes to attract 300 partner firms by the end of the year and has set a monthly revenue goal of JPY 8 million (US$68,000).

(Source: The Bridge)

See: With 8,000 designs in its portfolio, Japanese home design marketplace raises $1.2 million