mydeco began as a home design site built around 3D imaging and social features, created by the management team behind lastminute.com. It has pivoted from an aggregator/visualisation tool to a curated retail model, splitting into an affiliate marketplace (mydecomarketplace.com) and a retailer site under the mydeco name. The retail site features 40 hand-picked boutique retailers and designer-makers, roughly 500 high-quality products modelled in photo-realistic 3D today and 5,000 more being created. Its front end is built in JavaScript so the 3D visualisations work on iPads, and the company says 3D views tend to increase order value. Partners on the platform receive increased visibility, mydeco-branded packaging, improved shipping rates and centralized customer service; mydeco takes a commission on sales. The company says it aims to own the customer like a retailer today and ultimately to become the “Google Maps of Interiors.” mydeco aggregates roughly 500 retailers and offers over one million products through an online marketplace. The site provides tools to build 3D models of rooms and includes 3D models of about 20,000 real furniture items users can buy. Rooms form the core of a social community—designs are intended to be shareable via Facebook, MySpace and widgets—and the platform supports user and small-business uploaded room designs. mydeco operates an Etsy-like micro-affiliate model in which designers receive a small revenue share when items from their designs sell. The company aims to capture a slice of the $40 billion UK home decor market and expand to the US, projecting around $1 billion in UK revenues within three years. Brent Hoberman is founder and executive chairman, and the management and engineering team includes many ex-Lastminute staff.

Total raised

$3M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Nov 2011