Online craft community LoveCrafts clinches £26m investment

LoveCrafts, the online craft communities platform, has secured more than £26m in funding from Scottish Equity Partners (SEP), alongside Balderton and Highland Europe.

Launched in 2012 by Edward Griffith, Nigel Whiteoak and Cherry Freeman, LoveCrafts is an online community for independent designers to find inspiration, plan projects, buy supplies and sell with like-minded ‘crafters’.

Ranked third in The Sunday Times’ Tech Track 100 index last year and inducted into Tech City UK’s Future Fifty programme in February, the 150-strong company claims to have seen four years of steady growth, doubling revenue year-on-year.

Following a $10m raise in 2015, LoveCrafts will use this investment to scale its operations and improve the technology that allows users to connect through the platform, including the launch of further crafting sites and a focus on international expansion. The firm’s ultimate ambition is to be the digital leader in the $100bn global crafts market.

Griffith commented: “It’s always been our goal to connect makers, designers and creatives across the world in a social and accessible way, and this investment will help us to do this in more markets, with greater scale and better tools. We are delighted that SEP, together with our current backers, share our vision for the business, and confidence in its future.”

Stuart Paterson, partner at SEP, who joins the board of LoveCrafts, said: “Crafting is the world’s largest hobby. LoveCrafts has built an impressive, scalable, digital community-based platform targeting an international market worth $100 billion per annum.

“It has a large and rapidly growing customer base in the UK and US, and our investment will enable further expansion across Europe and Australasia, reinforcing the company’s position as the end to end destination for crafting enthusiasts across the globe.”