Project J secures £5m in seed funding led by Hoxton Ventures to drive international expansion
The financing round was led by Hoxton Ventures to support international growth and technology development.
Project J operates a mobile retail platform for home and living products, connecting independent brands with millennial shoppers. The business combines social content with machine learning to curate personalised shopping experiences.
Project J has secured £5m in a seed funding round led by Hoxton Ventures, alongside participation from several angel investors. The capital will be deployed to accelerate international expansion into markets including the US and Europe, as well as to develop the company's proprietary machine learning technology further.
The business has experienced rapid expansion, reporting a tenfold increase in revenue over the past year to reach an annual run rate exceeding £35m. Operating in a sector seeing accelerated online adoption due to shifting consumer habits, Project J partners with thousands of independent artists and brands to serve mobile native customers.
From the founder
"At Fy!, we're passionate about building a new way to shop for all the products people care about. We're thrilled to add Hoxton Ventures to the team and chose them due to their strong track record in supporting UK startups scale globally. We will be using this latest investment to continue to grow internationally – the US sales already make up over a third of Fy!'s revenue – by expanding our assortment there and launching Fy! in a number of large European markets."
Tom Beverley
Co-Founder at Project J
Investor perspective
"We've been impressed by the discipline and approach the team at Fy! have taken in rapidly scaling a brand in the home and living space – since we first spoke to them in early 2019 they've 10x'd their annual revenue run rate to over £35m+. The category is a huge one – over $500bn in size in the UK, Germany and US – with limited innovation and low levels of online penetration and we're seeing significant changes in consumers' shopping behaviours. Fy!'s approach and their growth convinced us they're a team that can build a category-defining brand and product in this space and we are excited to be part of the journey."
Hussein Kanji
Partner, Hoxton Ventures
Use of funds
- 01Expand into international markets
- 02Continue product development
- 03Fund research and development