The CEO of eCommerce marketplace ufurnish.com has spoken of the importance of highlighting female investors.
London-based ufurnish.com, a search and discovery platform for home furniture and furnishings, has unveiled £3.4 million in seed funding on International Women’s Day.
Led by co-founder Deirdre Mc Gettrick, a former star in the world of finance, it brings the total funding raised by the ‘Rightmove for furniture’ to £5.2m.
Mc Gettrick will speak on our panel – The platforms optimising online retail – at Manchester Digital’s eCommerce Conference 2023 on 23rd March. You can sign up here.
The former vice president of HSBC’s leverage and acquisition finance team, where she oversaw £20 billion-plus acquisition facilities for FTSE 100 players, says “it feels really important to draw attention to female founders – but also to female investors”.
ufurnish.com’s female backers include Camelia Robu, head of leveraged finance EMEA at Macquarie Capital; Caroline Worboys, founder of data company HDM Worboys – which she sold to News International – and founder of data company Outra; Ciara McElligott, principal at Tetrarch Capital, an Irish real estate business; Jenn Engelhardt, corporate partner at Latham & Watkins; Michele Connolly, partner at KPMG; Rosaleen Blair, founder and chair of Alexander Mann Solutions; and Sara Sullivan, a former banker and member of Angel Academe, an angel network investing in female-founded tech businesses and introducing more women to angel investing.
“I am particularly proud that 30% of my investors are females and include experienced businesswomen who have a strong record in building and growing businesses, from whom I can draw down on advice when required,” she explains.
“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.”
If founders do not have a readily available network of individuals who could become investors, Mc Gettrick recommends that they track down former colleagues who will recognise the qualities that will make you succeed. “Even if they don’t have funds themselves, they are likely to have 1-2 connections in their network they could introduce you to. A warm introduction is the most valuable thing you can get,” she says.
Despite women making up nearly a third of business founders – 32% of British entrepreneurs are female – the share of capital going to female founders is particularly dismal. It has actually decreased in recent years, making up just 1% of the total.
If your product or service is directed towards women, says Mc Gettrick, it makes complete sense to have female investors who would be users and therefore advocates for your business.
For example, the inspiration for ufurnish.com came from her personal struggle to find the furniture she wanted for her apartment. “I found the experience 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.
“It was frustrating that the same retailers kept appearing in searches, but I wanted to search all furniture retailers.”
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