The Amsterdam-based social marketplace for crafters, Creative Fabrica, has secured fresh funds in its Series A funding round. The news comes a year after the company raised around half a million funding for international expansion. Creative Fabrica offers a marketplace for digital assets. In an exclusive interview with Silicon Canals, the company’s co-founder, Roemie Hillenaar, reveals more about the company, how it weathered COVID-19, it’s future, and more.
New creator verticals coming soon
Creative Fabrica has secured a notable €5.76M in its Series A funding round. This round was led by Felix Capital, joined by FJ labs with the continued participation of Peak Capital. The funds will be utilised to offer more resources to the company’s community, which is stated to consist of over 1 million creators. New creator verticals such as yarning and kids crafts will be launched soon and its global footprint will also be expanded by adding new talent to its teams.
The startup has two revenue generation models, single sales and subscription. In the single sales model, it splits the revenue equally with the designers whereas it has a scoring system in place for subscribers. As Hillenaar explains, “As a subscriber, if I download 1 font and 1 svg quote, the font will get 5 points and the quote would get 1. The revenue is then shared at the end of the subscription period according to the points.”
From digital assets to a social marketplace
As Hillenaar reveals, Creative Fabrica was actually the co-founders’ second attempt at a startup.
“Before Creative Fabrica, Anca and I owned an agency wherein we offered digital assets. However, it was not a viable venture as it was eating into our budget. We didn’t go far with the idea and sold the agency to start something new for ourselves. We circled back to the problem we wanted to solve initially.” says Hillenaar. “We noticed a need from crafters for our content and in the first 6 months, we learned and focused on those needs. Hence, Creative Fabrica was born. Anca and I know each other for 10 years already (we are also married and have a 5-year-old daughter together).”
However, any startup faces some challenges early on. Creative Fabrica founders already knew what they wanted to create and for whom. They previously worked on marketplaces too, which gave them an edge. For the duo, it was understanding their audience that posed the initial challenge. However, the company did well and as per Hillenaar, they were profitable from day one.
The COVID impact and future plans
COVID had a notable impact on small startups and big businesses alike. For Creative Fabrica, it didn’t pose too big an issue as the company apparently witnessed growth sometime before COVID hit and that streak continued during the lockdown. “We did see a bit of additional growth on top of that though,” adds Hillenaar. The founders note that their business grew three times in 2020 and the same is expected in 2021.
As for the future, the company will focus on three key aspects. First one is hiring and team expansion with the total headcount going from 30 to 90. Next, they will focus on product improvement by adding new features, tools and more products. Furthermore, they intend to scale their marketing channels further.
More about Creative Fabrica
Founded in 2016 by Anca Stefan and Roemie Hillenaar, Creative Fabrica offers a way to serve digital assets to its customers. The service is said to have over 1 million users and it brought in sales from 175 countries in December 2020. While based out of Amsterdam, the company’s major chunk of the business comes from the US (60 per cent), while 20 per cent comes from the UK, Canada, and Australia.
