Decotherapy, turnkey interior design at affordable prices

The digital interior design services company Decotherapy has launched its first round of financing to raise half a million euros among private investors from the startup ecosystem and individuals in the sector. The fundraising will be carried out in several phases and also includes the Crowdcube platform.

Since the launch of the initiative in 2018 by entrepreneur and sole shareholder Gracia Cardona, the project has been self-financed and closed the last fiscal year with a turnover of 350,000 euros. Currently, Cardona leads a team of four professional experts in decoration and interior design.

Gracia Cardona explains that the resources will be used to consolidate and grow the brand inside and outside of Spain, with an eye on Portugal and France, countries they expect to address in 2023. On the other hand, the company wants to advance in information and logistics technologies and expects to invest in technological interconnection with its suppliers.

This will facilitate the improvement of the digital services of this marketplace, which connects consumers with interior designers, furniture brands, and logistics operators, to design and redecorate the rooms of habitual homes, the interior of professional premises or shops, and prevent it from becoming a nuisance full of impediments.

The company has its sights set on Portugal and France, countries they expect to address in 2023

In no case do they undertake reforms or rehabilitations, but they do offer global interior design services for real estate developers. In this sense, since January of this year, Decotherapy has been working jointly with InmoCaixa on a pilot thanks to which the developer's clients will be able to completely decorate their new homes with the personalized services of the marketplace. "With this agreement, InmoCaixa joins many other developers who are committed to digital services so that their clients have a very advantageous price in interior design and decoration services when acquiring a new home," explains Cardona.

The company also facilitates, for larger projects, a financing system through the also startup Nemuru Digital, a platform that connects companies, banking entities and consumers, and offers financing of up to 30,000 euros in a maximum period of 60 months.

Trained in Economic Sciences at the University of Barcelona, in Interior Design at EINA and with an MBA from the IESE business school, Gracia Cardona currently works with more than 40 interior designers, architects, professional decorators, landscapers and home stagers spread throughout Spain who carry out the design projects. Among its suppliers are more than 50 furniture firms and it has a network of more than ten logistics operator warehouses spread throughout the country.

The startup currently has an advisory board made up of Gadea de la Viuda, María Aracil and Blanca Ochoa, and has recently participated in the WeGrow mentoring program, from IESE.

This entrepreneur explains that the digitalization of the entire process and its supervision "guarantees that decorating a room stops being a problem and avoids cumbersome aspects such as solving possible incidents when a piece of furniture or accessory arrives damaged, wrong, or late…" and it does so "at affordable prices." "Because, she insists, turnkey interior design generally has a prohibitive price" and, in contrast, Decotherapy "responds to this problem by connecting the best creative talent with clients who need help designing their spaces.

According to Cardona, "decorating a house is complex and time-consuming. Traditional interior designers are expensive, and it's difficult to find a good professional at an affordable price. Even more so in some geographical areas far from big cities. When the consumer settles for doing it themselves, the dream home often translates into a bad experience with delays, errors, and a lot of stress."

The entrepreneur recognizes that the furniture and decoration sector has experienced strong digitalization after the pandemic, and so has the demand for online interior design services: "More than ever, consumers want to live in a cozy home, and we know that 6 out of 10 users would hire a professional to decorate it if it were more affordable."