Site that allows entrepreneurs sell custom clothing via social media raises $2.2m

Moteefe, a site that allows entrepreneurs sell custom clothing via social media, has raised $2.2m – taking its total investment to date to $2.5m.

Backing comes from a range of VCs and angel investors including Charles Songhurst and Livingbridge, as well as reinvestment from Ascension Ventures, Force Over Mass Capital, and Fuel Ventures – which is founded by Young Gun Mark Pearson.

The second round of funding the start-up has received to-date, this latest injection of cash will be used to drive international growth and expansion.

Aiming to “take away the hassle of pre-ordering costly stock, guessing sizes and colours” as well as helping to avoid storage problems, Moteefe allows sellers upload their designs to its platform and sell their offerings via social media.

Handling printing, posting and customer service for all its sellers, the site currently has over 30 different types of products to chose from, including t-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, baby and kids items, phone cases, mugs, tote bags, cushions and towels.

Designs are then sold in ‘campaigns’, a minimum of three days and a maximum of 21 days, with all orders printed then printed at once.

Moteefe believe this method significantly reduces costs and allows the platform to send maximum profits to the seller.

Founded in 2015 by Mathijs Eefting, Lev Kundin and Olivier Stapylton-Smith, who met while completing their MBA at INSEAD in 2014, the Moteefe team now stands at just over 30 part-time and full-time members of staff based across offices in London, Lisbon and St Petersburg.

Back in May 2015, Moteefe was one of 75 UK start-ups chosen to join MassChallenge UK – the world’s largest accelerator.

Participating from June to October of that year, the start-up competed with the likes of Q App and Compare and Share to win £500,000 of non-dilutive grants.

Eefting said:

“Moteefe has used the last six months to rapidly grow the business, beginning internally with our core product of the platform itself.

“We’ve shown that we can deliver strong growth in 2016 and early 2017, and the latest round of investment will be used to attract thousands of entrepreneurs to the new and improved platform.

“Gone are the days of the traditional nine-to-five, according to Forbes, 50% of the US workforce are set to class themselves as freelancers by 2020. Moteefe allows anyone, anywhere to become their own boss. All they need is a bunch of great ideas, internet access and the drive to succeed.

“Social media is changing the way that people buy online – it’s much more impulse-driven and we’re in that space offering entrepreneurs a new and exciting way to make money that is put in front of and appeals to the right people.

“We’re seeing huge growth in these markets where traditional workplaces are being replaced with other flexible options. Moteefe allows entrepreneurs to live a ‘laptop lifestyle’ around the world, making it perfect for digital nomads and those who don’t want the rigid confines of the office.

“The new Moteefe platform provides our users with the ability to build campaigns even faster, enabling these entrepreneurs to move quickly and increase their profits.”

Mark Pearson, CEO of Fuel Ventures, said:

“With social media and online sales behaviour rapidly changing, monetising social communities – whether your own or through Facebook advertising – is the most logical step for many people to earn additional revenue. Moteefe’s platform is making it easier than ever for people to create
this without any upfront costs.”

Want to start your own clothing brand? Click here and read our 4 simple steps to starting a clothing line.