Boston – Hello Raye, the office design technology platform that fosters seamless collaboration between interior design firms and furniture suppliers, announced that it has closed a $5 million seed round, with $2.5 million committed in 2019 and an additional $2.5 million commitment expected to be released in 2020. This round was led by both angel and corporate investors.
Hello Raye is addressing the gap that currently exists between the 12,000+ professional design firms and the $46 billion office furniture market. The platform democratizes access between professional designers and furniture suppliers.
Hello Raye founders: Brian Chiou, Brandon Zuech, Masa Matsumura, and Elizabeth Phillips
By using a catalog of real furniture inventory with 2D and 3D design assets, Hello Raye creates a new experience in discovering emerging brands, creating design projects, and forging meaningful relationships with leading brands and professionals in the industry.
Founded in June 2019 and headquartered in Boston, Hello Raye was created by founders Brian Chiou, Brandon Zuech, Masa Matsumura, and Elizabeth Phillips to help businesses put forth the best working environments while building a great work community.
The process of connecting these industries to achieve the best office design has, until now, been costly, time-consuming, and a multi-layered process that adds strain to designers, suppliers, commercial real estate partners, and businesses alike.
Providing a one-stop shop solution to office design, Hello Raye streamlines the design process with its robust warehouse of products, a community of leading designers and brands, hassle-free concierge powered by machine learning, and data-driven designs.
By combining completed projects, the furniture used within designs, and information about the buyers, Hello Raye positions itself as a leading analytics engine for the interior design industry.
Beyond capturing market share, Hello Raye’s larger mission is to transform office design by fostering universal discovery, seamless connectivity, innovative creation, and inspired collaboration, thereby creating better workspaces for all.
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The seed money will bolster the company’s go-to-market strategy, user/market research, development team, and design team.
“The support by our strategic investors allows our team to remain razor-focused on building an innovative technology solution for the commercial office design and procurement industry,” said Brian Chiou, CEO and co-founder of Hello Raye. “The digital bridge we are building between professional design firms and the commercial furniture/décor industry will be an unparalleled user experience which will benefit both parties.”
The financing comes at a pivotal time for the technology-based company, priming it for rapid growth in a $9.1 billion interior design industry and a $46 billion commercial supplier market. The professional design firm market consists of 12,642 firms, consisting of 68,067 interior designers, while the parallel industry of the commercial supply market consists of $25.53 billion in office furniture manufacturing revenue, and $46 billion in U.S. office furniture market revenue.
