Rotterdam-based Monday Merch, a sustainable and high-quality merchandise platform, announced that it has secured €500K growth financing from Rabobank.
Monday Merch says it will use the investment to expand the team, increase international exposure, and roll out a new merchandise platform.
The birth of Monday Merch
Jeroen Westerbeek, Florian Frenken, Kevin van der Veer, and Daniël Salimian, the founders of Monday Merch, are no strangers to the world of entrepreneurship.
In 2013, Westerbeek, van der Veer, and Salimian founded WoodWatch, a company that sold wooden watches and pledged to plant a tree with every sale.
Their eco-friendly business model earned them a spot on the prestigious Forbes 30 under 30 lists, showcasing their ability to innovate in sustainable markets.
The trio, along with Florian Frenken, founded Monday Merch after having experienced first-hand difficulties getting high-quality merch into the hands of employees.
Kevin van der Veer says, ”We have experienced ourselves how difficult it is to organise merch. Spending countless hours finding beautiful products, ordering everything from different places, and then packing it yourself and taking it to the post office.”
“We thought: this can and must be done better. Monday Merch was born out of this need. Sustainable, high-quality merch, which comes from 1 place in beautiful packages to your office or employees,” adds van der Veer.
Monday Merch addresses the need by managing the entire process, from design and production to storage and distribution, in a centralised location.
Monday Merch: Helps businesses with the entire merchandise journey
With the merchandise platform, the Rotterdam company will provide customers with live insight into the entire merchandise journey from start to finish, giving businesses greater control over the process while saving time through automation.
Designers will collaborate on one centralised platform, and orders and stocks will be transparent, while international shipments will be organised.
“The technology we are introducing to the merchandise market is unique and of added value for small, but especially large, companies that want to spend less time on merchandising and want to significantly improve the experience,” says Daniel Salimian.
“Due to the focus on technology, the company can offer a full-service solution, from design, product(ion), warehousing, and worldwide shipping. The platform integrates with HRIS systems such as Workday to send automated onboarding packages. This distinguishes Monday Merch from the rest of the merchandise market,” adds Salimian.
With Monday Merch to the rescue, companies only have to worry about choosing products, claims the company
The company also offers storage in its warehouse and sends the packages to (international) customers and employees when necessary.
“From day 1, we consistently received more requests than we could handle. This allowed us to scale the team to 50 team members in a short period,” says Florian Frenken.
“Our first major customer was Polaroid. At that moment we knew we had something unique in our hands with Monday Merch. Companies such as Uber, Sixt, and Hyundai soon followed,” says Frenken.
Jeroen Westerbeek says, “Thanks to Rabobank’s growth financing, we can grow faster and faster. With the financing, we focus on three important areas: team, technology, and marketing. In terms of the team, we have grown to 50 people in a short time, and with the financing, we can continue to expand.”
“In terms of technology, we will invest in the launch of a new platform, operations, and further improvement of the design process and the website. In terms of marketing, we will invest in greater international exposure,” concludes Westerbeek.