First Round Capital

news

CustomMade Brings Artisan, Customized Products To Mass Market

The long tail of the Internet gave rise to ecommerce, providing consumers easy access to all manner of niche products. Now a growing site, CustomMade, has extended that ability to getting almost any product custom-designed for you.

While sites like Fab.com and One Kings Lane are selling curated home products, CustomMade channels a different interest: the desire to be a part of the process of making a product.

Also tapping into the desire to avoid big box retailers, CustomMade is like the popular crafty site Etsy, except CustomMade’s average transaction size is $1,300 to $1,500, while Etsy’s is said to be about $25. The items on CustomMade could be a dining room table, wedding rings or customized motorcycle. The Cambridge, Mass. company also differs from Etsy in that it curates producers to make sure they are all legitimate, which is important since the products are big-ticket items. And, unlike on Etsy, virtually all the producers on CustomMade are professionals.

February 25, 2013 Forbes

news

Window shopping: The rise of the new marketplace

An interesting company that has gone one step further from Etsy is CustomMade.com. Where Etsy is a marketplace for handmade goods, CustomMade.com is a marketplace for custom made goods.

What piques my interest with CustomMade.com is the fact that it looks like e-commerce, but it’s not. You can go on the site and browse items that makers are creating, but you can’t simply buy one. The site is a place where carpenters, woodworkers, metal workers, jewelry makers, and so on can connect with people who want certain items made specifically for them to meet their unique needs.

December 18, 2012

news

CustomMade Is the Custom-Goods Matchmaker

Let's face it, not everybody belongs on the business end of a bandsaw. But what options do people with a taste for custom furniture and a fistful of thumbs have? Sure, they could scour craft fairs looking for an artisan to realize their vision, or search endlessly online, but there has to be an easier way to get classy, custom goods.

September 12, 2012 Wired

news

Marketplace For Customized Goods CustomMade Raises $4M From Google Ventures And Others

CustomMade , an online marketplace that connects shoppers with artisans to make customized goods, has raised $4 million in funding co-led by Google Ventures and Schooner Capital. Existing investors Launch Capital, Nextview Ventures, Andrew McCollum and First Round Capital all participated in the round. This brings CustomMade's total funding to $8 million.

April 30, 2012 TechCrunch

news

CustomMade's makers will build anything you can imagine

Enter CustomMade.com, an emerging player in the artisan e-commerce boom. What began more than 15 years ago as a woodworking site has emerged into a thriving bazaar for all kinds of custom projects. It's like an Etsy where you can customize everything on offer -- and it's caught the eye of influential investors like Google Ventures and First Round Capital.

April 4, 2012 CNN

news

CustomMade IDs backers in $2.1M round as Google, First Round

Online custom crafts marketplace company CustomMade Ventures Corp. announced the $2.1 million financing that it filed federal documents about in late September, identifying the lead investors as Google Ventures and First Round Capital.

November 17, 2011 MassHightech

news

Google Ventures and First Round Drop $2.1 Million Into Custom Marketplace CustomMade

Peer to peer marketplace CustomMade has raised $2.1 million in Series A funding today, led by First Round Capital and Google Ventures with additional investment from Founder Collective, Launch Capital, Next View Ventures, Andrew McCollum and David Tisch.

November 17, 2011 TechCrunch