Some people just know what they want.
Cambridge-based CustomMade announced this morning that they've secured $1.1M in funding from a set of unnamed investors. The two-year old company is a marketplace for custom services in the form of wood, metal and glass goods.
"The Company is very pleased to have been able to close this convertible-debt transaction so quickly. Less than 90-days after we decided to pursue outside investment to fuel our growth, the $1MM USD round was over-subscribed," said Co-founder and CFO Seth Rosen in a press release sent to BostInnovation. "The Board had initially contemplated pursuing Series A Venture Capital, but given how fast the company's revenues are growing, a bridge round was determined to be a prudent interim step."
CustomMade have now secured some $1.65M in just two years. One of the investors on this round of funding is the same angel who supplied the initial capital CustomMade needed to get off the ground. Co-founders Rosen and Mike Salguero raised $500K in angel funding back in 2008 to purchase the stagnating brand and relaunch it as a tool for customers with specific goods in mind. We first profiled CustomMade back in May, and have been keeping tabs on their activity ever since. At that point, they were solvent and supporting 12 full-time employees.
The site is currently home to 2,100 paying artisans, all of whom showcase their skills on the site in the form of photos and descriptions. Customers surf the site to find the right craftsman for the job they have in mind.
If you're looking to buy a table for that odd-shaped corner in your living room or a well made cabinet to match your existing dining room furniture, CustomMade is built with you in mind.
Unlike New York City-area startups Etsy and Art.sy, two other marketplaces for artisanal goods, CustomMade is built entirely around individual demand. Etsy's "Alchemy" section allows users to post requests for custom-crafted accessories and handmade goods, but it would seem the signal-to-noise ratio when random requests are fired out at will and without direction is a shortcoming in Alchemy's design.
CustomMade works differently.
Text on the site's "Why Custom?" page says it's for buyers who are, "not the 'average customer,' but an individual one."
Do you know exactly what you want a metalworker, woodworker, glass maker or home remodeler to do?
You can simply head to CustomMade and peruse each artisan's profile, checking out the kind of work each contractor can create. After finding a person with a portfolio you find convincing, you can contact them by submitting a simple form and starting the conversation.
