BabyQuip, a Santa Fe, NM-based baby gear rental marketplace, closed a $3.4m seed funding round.
Backers included How Women Invest, Thorney Investment Group (an investor in prior rounds), and individual investors through the crowd-funding platform, SeedInvest, among others.
The company intends to use the funds to accelerate:
- international expansion plans, including capturing key travel markets in Mexico and the Caribbean, new hospitality partnerships, and expanding its network of independent contractors, called Quality Providers,
- product and technology innovation, including a mobile app for customers,
- expansion into new services, and
- improvements to its proprietary technology platform.
Launched in 2016 by Fran Maier, BabyQuip is a national marketplace for baby gear rentals delivering clean, insured, and quality equipment to families on-the-go in over 900 locations in the U.S., Canada and beyond.
The platform is powered by its Quality Providers (mostly moms) who use their own inventory to build, launch, and grow their baby gear rental businesses, leveraging the proprietary platform, and drawing on BabyQuip’s branding and marketing expertise.
The company has formed strategic partnerships with hospitality companies including Destination by Hyatt, Vrbo, AvantStay, Blueground, Xplorie, Guesty, DACK, and more.
FinSMEs
27/04/2022