- Chums is a social shopping service that helps friends suggest certain products to their friends.
- The company has shown off the investors that include names like Runway, Mono, Pangea, and Flux.
Introduction:
With Y Combinator Demo Day which kicks off tomorrow morning, startups are working hard to show off the recent growth to the investors which include Runway, Mono, Pangea and Flux. Chums is a social shopping service that helps friends with the suggestion of the products to their pals. The startup has given a total of dollar 3.5 million across two pre-seed investments.
Details of the fundraising process:
Noah Elion, who is one of the founders of Chums, says that his company closed $1 million in December and was looking to raise $1.5 million. The interest rate for the shares ran high so Chums ended up raising $1 million, more than its latter target. The company did not share the cap at which the funds raised by SAFE were secured. The dollar 1.5 million targets were based on the amount of capital that the company would require for the next 18 months, says Elion. The final amount came from Ludlow, Shrug, Contrary Capital, among other firms and individuals.
It is interesting to know how a company in the midst of y combinator managed to raise a Series-A round of capital despite the launch of its product just a few weeks ago.
Details about the team at Chums:
Co-founder Dick Fickling had been an early Engineer at Honey. It is another shopping-focused startup and had a material exit. The start-up’s service is a mobile app that allows users to follow product-types that they may want to purchase and comes with suggestions of the goods to one another which might fit their friends’ requirements. It was launched 3 weeks ago as Elion explained before his company went for fundraising. When asked about the early traction, Elion said that it is too soon to talk much about it though the team has seen “encouraging” levels of engagement so far.
The startup consists of four people today which according to the website is a group of friends. This is very true as Elion and Fickling teamed up after the former built a predecessor to Charms called Chums Referral. In this process they became friends. Fickling was a colleague and friend to Lauren Williams (director of engineering) and Lena Gasilina (product).
When it comes to expansion of the team:
The team is looking for a designer and a front-end developer but they don’t want any other professionals apart from these two. It intends to keep six people until the next round. This is because it wants to reach the product-market fit with half a dozen staff. If it works the company should be able to raise more money with a comfortable valuation. Chums ons Mani from commissions on recommended products while it splits the revenue with the users. Elion did not share the network, or networks, his company works with to secure commercial ties with retailers and say that in time the company will go directly to secure better deals. With the close ground the team in place and app in the market it is up to Chums to prove Elion’s view.
