Amsterdam-based Decodata, a digital data hub for interior products, secures fresh funding

Amsterdam-based Decodata, a company making interior products accessible to a larger audience, has secured fresh funding. The amount, however, was undisclosed.

The startup was supported by a group of six investors, including existing backers and new additions from the stock market and the entrepreneurs associated with Stoov.

Anne de Jongh, founder and CEO of Decodata says, “With this group of investors we bring in specialists with even more knowledge about the possibilities of data, international e-commerce and marketplaces.”

She further adds, “Many people don’t understand the scale of the problem in the interior design industry and why the problem is twofold; On the one hand, there is an automation backlog and on the other hand, CO2 emissions in the interior design industry are many times greater than in fashion, partly due to the old-fashioned way of data processing.”

What does Decodata offer?

According to Decodata, many retailers highlight the time-consuming challenge of processing unstructured data from brands. Often delivered in PDF and Excel files, the manual extraction of specifications like materials, prices, dimensions, and product names requires significant effort. 

Decodata addresses this issue by streamlining and automating the process, minimising the need for time-consuming manual tasks. It structures interior product specifications in a file format that can be seamlessly imported into the web shops of online retailers. 

The startup claims to reduce retailers’ time and costs by over 50 per cent.

A strategic round!

Eric Mencke, CCO and co-founder, highlights the round’s strategic nature.

He says, “In recent times we have learned that the timing of a financing round is more important than ever in the current investment climate. While investors were queuing up until 2022 for SaaS companies with a working product, product-market fit and paying customers, the situation is now different.”

“With Decodata, we have consciously chosen a product market that fits in with industry-wide pilots. Our goal is to scale up next year, with the use of our extensive (AI) toolkit, to a level at which we can realise a substantial financing round at a good valuation.”

With this funding and in-house expertise, Decodata aims to establish itself as the leading authority in product data in the furniture sector.

The impending CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive), governed by the government, is bolstering the credibility of product origin data more than ever. Decodata claims that businesses with a solid grasp of this will outpace competitors.

In November, the company introduced a Product Selector, allowing the creation of detailed product information linked to a unique ID for complex products. “This means that each chair’s colour and material variation through our product becomes virtually the same as, for example, in the food industry and consumer electronics,” says Decodata.

By enabling this product coding, Decodata facilitates practical management of the entire production-to-sales chain and enhances product circularity.