Design Italy launches a crowdfunding equity campaign on 200Crowd

Design Italy, the high-end Made in Italy design export marketplace that helps artisans, artists, and designers still little known to climb international markets, has launched its equity crowdfunding campaign on 200Crowd.

“Our goal is to reach between $164,000 and $328,000 (€150,000 and €300,000) – explained Roberto Ferrari, founder and CEO of Design Italy – We will use what we have achieved to expand in global markets; expand our team with the inclusion of three new figures by the end of the year and strengthen the marketing sector; increase automation and further develop the technical part in view of a project to be carried out with China.”

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Design Italy: the startup 100% Made in Italy

The sector of Italian design is still little present in the field of e-commerce. Roberto Ferrari, former General Manager of ‘Che Banca!’ and Chief Digital and Innovation Officer of Mediobanca, first sniffed out the potential that digital design offers in the field of Made in Italy. “I’ve long been passionate about design and I saw e-commerce as a great market and growth opportunity – said Ferrari – I’ve noticed that there are still few Italian companies of a certain size that take advantage of online sales channels, the sector that has grown the most in the world during the past year.”

Design Italy is an innovative startup founded a year ago as an aggregating platform of excellence in the field of luxury and design 100% made in Italy. It offers the opportunity for designers, artists, and craftsmen to climb the international markets.

“We sell in Italy, above all, but also in America and the United Kingdom. Just in London we signed an agreement with Liberty Store for the research of qualified Made in Italy products – explained Ferrari. Even the South East Asian market, before the health emergency, was very interested in our proposals. In fact, with China, we have in mind to structure a dedicated plan. We have, however, a logistic capacity to serve over 200 countries in the world thanks to agreements with forwarding agents and couriers.”

Design Italy is part of a market segment that, until before the international health emergency, has recorded constant growth. Italian digital exports grew 15% in 2019, reaching almost 12 billion, twice as much as the 6 billion of 2015. The furniture sector, in particular, was the first at global level for the growth rate of digital exports in 2019 with +19%.

The crowdfunding equity campaign

With the aim of attracting new capital from abroad and pushing the excellence of luxury design made in Italy towards the international market, Design Italy launched a crowdfunding campaign on 200Crowd. It will last two months and the ambition is to reach $328,000 (€300,000).

“We also want to increase the team (currently made up of 8 people plus some external collaborators), adding 3 new profiles by the end of the year – explained the CEO – and push more on the marketing and sales side. In addition, we want to increase automation and recover funds to carry out projects in South East Asia.”

“We expect, in a first phase, attention from mainly Italian investors – said the founder – and then, in a second mid-term period, to win international investors. Excluding the last two months, the balance sheet, to date, is positive. Looking at 2021 we are very ambitious, with a turnover of  $1.86 million (€1.7 million) that would allow us to increase marketing activities, launch special projects already in progress and continue with digital and catalogue developments. On the platform, which can be used both in Italian and English, there are over 70 companies and 1,000 products. We are very satisfied.”

Among the designers and partner companies of Design Italy there are also: Studio 65, Zanetto, Budri, Paola C, Baleri, Franco Audrito, Martinelli luce, Giacopini, as well as art masters such as Officine di Efesto, Michele Iodice, Archivio Crepax.

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(Featured image by Preis_King via Pixabay)

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First published in StartupItalia, a third-party contributor translated and adapted the article from the original. In case of discrepancy, the original will prevail.

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