Mjuk

Mjuk is a Finnish company operating a full-service online marketplace for quality second-hand furniture and design. It targets the friction in resale of large, bulky goods by handling the complete chain itself: pickup from a seller's home or office, cleaning and treatment, studio photography, warehousing, marketing, sale through its own store and partner channels, and delivery to the buyer, with payment remitted to the seller.

The company sells both to consumers and to businesses. Its consumer storefronts run in Finnish, Swedish and English, with the English store serving buyers across EU countries; product categories are organised by room (living room, kitchen, bedroom, office, hallway, patio) and include design classics and vintage pieces. Mjuk Business addresses companies disposing of furniture during moves or warehouse clearances, designers, and project sales, and it runs "circular collaborations" with brands and retailers such as SOFACOMPANY, Rugvista, Umage and Rezas Rugs, whose surplus and returned stock otherwise occupies storage space.

Mjuk positions second-hand furniture as cheaper and faster to obtain than new goods, citing prices up to 60-80% below new retail and delivery within days, and states that buying second-hand can reduce climate impact by up to 90% compared with buying newly produced furniture.

Founding story

Max Heino and Rickard Zilliacus started Mjuk by taking the first orders from a small garage in Helsinki holding around thirty pieces of furniture, aiming to make buying and selling used furniture simple and straightforward. Casper von Pfaler joined shortly afterwards as the third founder and took charge of the technology. The company was founded in 2019, with Zilliacus as CEO.

Business model

Mjuk operates a full-service, end-to-end marketplace for second-hand furniture rather than a peer-to-peer classifieds board. It collects furniture from private sellers and companies, cleans or treats and photographs the items in its own studios, stores them in warehouses in Finland and Sweden, markets and sells them through its online store and partner channels, and delivers them to buyers, paying proceeds to the seller. A business arm, Mjuk Business, serves companies clearing stock or relocating, works with interior designers, and offers project sales plus standing discounts and other benefits to partners.

Revenue is generated from the resale of second-hand furniture that Mjuk sources from consumers and businesses and sells through its stores, with proceeds paid out to sellers after sale. Reported sales were €887k in 2020 and €1.5 million in 2021.

Traction

Reported sales of €887k in 2020 and €1.5 million in 2021. The company reports more than 50,000 customers, over 200 new items listed weekly, thousands of products in its catalogue, and a team that has grown from three founders to about 30 people with warehouses in Finland and Sweden.

Latest developments

Mjuk operates market-specific storefronts for Finland and Sweden plus an English-language EU-wide store, reports more than 50,000 customers and over 200 new listings each week, and runs circular collaborations with SOFACOMPANY, Rugvista, Umage and Rezas Rugs. Its stated ambition, expressed by the founders, is to become the leading second-hand furniture player in Europe within five years.