Toy subscription service Whirli raises £4m seed funding round
A London-based toy sharing subscription service has raised £4m in its seed round led by Octopus Ventures just in time for Christmas.
Rather than a usual subscription service, Whirli subscribers borrow toys instead of purchasing them and any unloved or outgrown toys can be sent back and swapped for another item.
Whirli’s service, which starts from £9.99 a month, uses a tech platform which now tracks over 50,000 toys that they circulate between households.
The company said it would use the fresh funding to continue investing in this proprietary tech, with a clear focus on child development.
It is an increasingly attractive trend for venture capital firms that are looking to capitalise on this so-called circular economy which is proving popular among millennial and GenZ parents.
“The toy market is huge, but it remains mostly stuck in the dark ages of e-commerce 1.0 and offline retail,” said Rebecca Hunt, an early tage investor at Octopus Ventures. “We believe there is a real opportunity for a new entrant like Whirli to disrupt with a new approach.”
The industry is a huge sector with annual global retail sales of around £70bn but it has been plagued with issues as consumers move online and onto sites like Amazon.
As this year has shown consumption habits are changing, and with more and more customers opting for sustainable options it is clear investors consider Whirli as an important disruptor.
“Whirli enables parents to make more ethical and sustainable choices in a large market that has seen limited innovation to date,” said Dele Akinyemi, investor at MMC Ventures, which also participated in the funding round.