Our angel investor found the Polish startup Deko Eko last year at the Next Roundinvestment conference. The investment she made is a bit different from what we are used to, since she invested as part of a larger syndicate built with the help of a crowdfunding campaign.
Crowdfunding for Deko Eko did not take place over any of the prominent crowdfunding platforms but was instead organized in cooperation with Danube Angels. Deko Eko went through a thorough due diligence process and was selected as one of the few lucky companies to set up their own campaign.
We talked to the CEO Agata Frankiewicz about their plans for the future.
Tell us about what Deko Eko does.
Deko Eko is developing our first circular B2B marketplace (platform). The platform connects upcycling designers and producers from around the world, with business clients that want to add new value to their waste.
160k is quite a sum. What are you going to spend the money on? What’s the runway?
I am still awaiting the finalization of the whole campaign as there will be difference in runway and budgets to spent if we reach 160k EUR than for example 300k EUR. However, I can already say that with the amount of 160k EUR which we already raised, we have another 10-12 months of runway. At the same time, we are talking to larger impact venture capital funds from the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Scandinavia to complete the full 500k EUR round.
We want to spend around 60 % of the budget on further development of Dekoeko.com marketplace and its activation into SaaS model. Around 20 % of that budget will go to marketing and covering entry costs.
Do you expect to grow your team? What areas do you currently have covered and where is still room for expansion?
Yes definitely we will need to rebuild the team. We will hire another developer since at this time we only have one developer working on our marketplace. We will also be looking for a marketing specialist / growth hacker with experience in growing e-commerce and marketplaces.
In the beginning of February, we just hired a project manager for German & Austrian markets, who will be working from Berlin. I am also considering hiring an external COO who will help me focus on Business Development and investors relations. To enter new markets, we will also be looking for local scouts for designers who will be researching and onboarding new upcycling partners and designers on their local markets.
In terms of sales team we built a very strong team. We onboarded three new business managers on Polish, Dutch and German markets.
Since the crowdfunding is still open – where can interested investors find out more?
The goal was set to raise a minimum of 160.000 EUR. This was reached but the Deko Eko team is aiming higher. Our crowdfunding campaign is thus still open for investors with minimal tickets of 1.000 EUR.
We have set up a dedicated Deko Eko website with the details of our crowdfunding campaign here.
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