Eany.io, a Lithuanian start-up developing a B2B platform for trading electronics, household, and DIY goods, secured a €2 million investment in the seed funding. It was provided by well-known European investment funds Market One Capital from Poland and Practica Capital from Lithuania, according to the information shared with Finbold.
“There are only a handful of platforms of this type in Europe, and there have never been any in the electronics, home, and DIY segment. Therefore, the investment will allow us to accelerate and optimise our business processes and prepare for the expected growth”, says Mindaugas Apanavičius, co-founder and CEO of Eany.io.
Part of the €2 million investment was provided by the Polish fund Market One Capital, which is considered one of the top 10 VC funds in Europe investing in trading platforms.
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According to Marcin Kurek, Managing Partner of Market One Capital Fund, even though we are still at the beginning of the B2B marketplace revolution, the trends are very clear.
“We believe that in the long term, each business category will have its own marketplace to facilitate all its needs: transactions, sales, logistics, payments etc. This will transform many industries as we know them today. That’s why we decided to back founders of Eany, supporting them in digitizing a huge, highly fragmented and still mostly offline industry,” says Mr. Kurek.
Another co-investor in this round, Practica Capital, is one of the leading early-stage VCs in the Baltics. The fund has invested in Lithuanian startups such as Ovoko, Eneba, and Billo, all of which are developing globally renowned trading platforms.
“We are excited to take part in the effort to reduce clutter and distance between brands and consumers. There are still vast structural inefficiencies in access, logistics, and warehousing, often exploited by incumbent middlemen. We believe that Eany’s founding team’s domain expertise and technical prowess form a winning combination to build a differentiated B2B marketplace to capture immense value,” says Arvydas Bložė, Partner at Practica Capital.
Targeting an undeveloped niche
According to the CEO of Eany.io, the start-up is a B2B trading platform that collects stock data from manufacturers, distributors, and physical stores. The collected data is aggregated on the platform, and the specific information is made available to buyers, physical, and online stores.
“We see that the big B2B platforms, the “unicorns” like Ankorstore and Faire, prioritise working with small producers, while our idea is to allow retailers to sell A-brands by themselves. Having A-brands in the range makes us interesting to a wider range of customers, and smaller producers will be presented with A-brands as an option. Customers who choose the big brands are much more loyal to their suppliers, but they are also more demanding in terms of pricing,” explains Mr. Apanavičius.
According to representative of Eany.io, several years of experience in retail and wholesale markets show that A-brands act as a booster to sell more B-brand and private label products. “Therefore, our current range gives retailers an additional opportunity to attract new customers by focusing on product and online shop promotion, while leaving all product selection and procurement to our sales platform.”
According to Mr. Apanavičius, both suppliers and buyers can benefit from the platform they are developing. The focus is on expanding the range of products in the electronics, homeware, and DIY categories.
“We help suppliers not only to manage their warehouses more smoothly, but also to enter new markets. European suppliers – manufacturers and retailers – are added to the database by submitting product lists in different, easy to integrate forms. In this database, the product lists are aggregated, analysed, and given to retail customers vja API, while suppliers are provided with feedback on their assortment,” says Mr. Apanavičius.
At the same time, the buyers of the goods – physical and online stores – are given trade credits, order logistics are consolidated, and the range of goods is radically expanded. Such solutions allow each of business partners to secure higher revenues and strengthen their competitive positions in the highly competitive European retail market.
Million-value orders – in the first year
Currently, more than 200 suppliers are using the platform to submit their data. According to the co-founder of the start-up, this enables suppliers to generate additional revenue, ensures higher warehouse turnover and helps them to realise stagnant stock.
“This year alone, we have helped suppliers to generate more than €9 million in orders: this is not the only proof that the concept we are developing is interesting to customers, but also demonstrates its real benefits. The product manufacturers we work with also benefit – in exchange for the data, we help them do all the hard work: coordinating logistics, managing customers’ trade credits etc.,” says Mr. Apanavičius, co-founder and CEO of Eany.io.
About Eany.io
Eany.io is a B2B commerce platform developed by Lithuanian start-up 1ean, UAB which connects buyers and suppliers of different products and operators. The company aims to address the inefficiencies of traditional B2B trade by giving customers a centralised place to shop, simplifying transactions and providing wider access to products for businesses across Europe.
The company’s co-founders include Mindaugas Apanavičius, Artūras Petkauskas, and Kęstutis Ramoskevičius – long-time employees of UAB Sominis Technology and DistIT AB, as well as Antanas Kaselis, who has many years of experience in programming and IT system development. An additional Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) enables new and existing employees to become shareholders of the company as well.
