Every year at Whirli HQ, we take a moment after our busy Christmas period, to reflect on our progress towards our mission to help parents live more sustainably without breaking the bank. Similar to every business and every family around the world, 2020 has been full of surprises, uncertainty, and overall it has been incredibly challenging for us.
I have been incredibly proud with how our team responded to these challenges. Most of all, we have been so delighted to have received so much support from our subscriber community. Thank you for continuing to believe in our mission, for recommending us, for buying gifts for your friends, and thank you for all the kind notes of thanks and encouragement we received throughout the year. It means a lot and shows that what we’re doing has mattered to thousands of families and children across the UK. We will continue doing our best and going the extra mile for you.
This level of customer love and support has meant that, despite a challenging year for business and fundraising, we have been able to secure a substantial investment in our business, in a Seed funding round led by Octopus Ventures, with participation from MMC Ventures.
It’s an incredibly exciting time for us, as we have so many ideas and plans for the business that will make it even easier to use, more flexible, offer more choice, whilst still offering amazing value for money. Some of the first things we are likely to do include:
- Adding more toys and products to our range: we loved hearing all your suggestions for products you’d like to borrow from us. With plans to open a larger warehouse underway, we’re really excited to turn to this shopping list and having more brands and products available to borrow through your Whirli subscription.
- Better delivery/return convenience and control: adding more courier networks to give subscribers more choice about how and when to receive their parcels or return them. Better platform integrations to give you more visibility, notifications, and control for upcoming deliveries.
- More engaging content and guidance for parents: helping you with advice and recommended toys for learning through play
- Improved product feedback and suggestions: helping you discover new toys your family may enjoy based on your feedback of toys you’ve borrowed
- Better overall operations: to ensure a consistent and high level of service for every parcel delivered to every customer
Again, a big thank you to all our subscribers and to all our staff who have gotten us to this point. Together, we have truly demonstrated the demand and strong potential for a different way to shop and consume – one that is better for consumers, better for children, and better for our environment.
Merry Christmas!
Nigel Phan
Founder & Managing Director