Mysterious Investor Leads $56M Funding Round For Furniture Retailer Made.com

British startup Made.com just received a new $56 million (£40 million) round, led by a mystery investor, with participation from existing investors Partech Ventures, Level Equity and Eight Roads Ventures.

TechCrunch reported that the mystery investor is “a new tier 1 global institutional investor.” And since it appears the round isn’t over yet, Made.com might wind up raising even more, leading to speculation that the company could be preparing for an IPO.

“We’ve had a strong start to 2018 and are very excited about the future,” said CEO Philippe Chainieux, according to Ecommerce News Europe.

Chainieux says that the funds will help the furniture retailer expand in existing and new markets across Europe. While Made.com exclusively sells online, it has six physical showrooms – located in London, Birmingham, Leeds, Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam – to help customers make purchasing decisions.

The company prides itself on selling quality furniture at an affordable price. Made.com aims to take on high-end furniture stores by controlling everything from manufacturing to the eCommerce platform, so that it doesn’t have to pay as many middle players and can offer better prices on its products.

Its plan seems to be working, as Chainieux also announced that the company reached profitability last year in the UK, France and Benelux, and that it’s now cash-flow positive at a group level. In 2017, Made.com achieved net revenue of about 145 million euros – an increase of 40 percent compared to the previous year.

Made.com is also working to boost its online presence. Last year, it announced that it was enabling live chatting capabilities between its online customers and staff in its physical showrooms using technology from live chat company Hero. It also launched a new iOS app available in the App Store.

Lastly, the company just announced new CFO Adrian Evans, who previously worked at YOOX Net-A-Porter.