This week Schibsted Ventures announces a new investment in the Tings app, together with Spintop, FJ Labs and Arkwright X. Tings brings physical products into the digital world, connecting consumers, brands, retailers and third parties in a circular ecosystem and marketplace.
Tings is a consumer app for storing receipts and product information for all the things you own. By collecting and cataloguing receipts, Tings uses artificial intelligence to build a digital repository of your things, giving you direct access to spare parts, repairers and channels for second-hand sales.
“For Schibsted Ventures, this is a new marketplace model where we see Tings as a future enabler of our marketplaces. Tings can potentially reduce barriers to selling second-hand products on our marketplace, improve quality of listings and verify ownership of things listed,” says Mats Staugaard, Investment Manager at Schibsted Ventures.
A collaboration with, among others, Fjällrälven, IKEA, Eplehuset and Anton Sport is already in place, and more players are on the way.
Aims to change the trade
“Our aim is to change the trade. It may sound ambitious, but with EU regulations in place, stores and brands are obliged to think more circularly, and more about repairs and second-hand sales than they do today. Tings makes it easier to meet the requirements we know are on their way,” says Sondre Selbæk, co-founder and CEO at Tings.
Staugaard believes Tings fits well into Schibsted’s portfolio of venture brands. “We have followed the team at Tings for a long time and they are impressively ambitious. They solve a big problem for brands, stores and customers. If Tings achieves its ambitions, it will contribute greatly to a more sustainable trade. We look forward to following the company and the service further and we think it is exciting that renowned investors such as Spintop, FJ Labs and Arkwright X have also seen the potential in Tings,” adds Staugaard.
Schibsted Ventures has invested NOK 5 million into Tings in a NOK 13 million investment round led by Swedish investor Spintop Ventures (NOK 5 million). The other investors included FJ Labs and Norwegian investor Arkwright X.
Being a user of the Tings app is free and it currently has over 17,000 unique users. The company has 10 employees based in Oslo. According to founder Sondre Selbæk, the money from this round will go towards further development of existing services and the offer for customers.
