SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Spruce Up, a stealth company founded by ecommerce and design lifestyle experts Mia Lewin and Mike Dierken, today announced an initial round of funding of $1.5 million. The backers are known for their expertise in marketplaces, AI, ecommerce and new consumer services, and include Two Sigma Ventures, Madrona Venture Group, Maveron, Female Founders Fund, and Peterson Ventures.
“In the age of Pinterest boards, consumers are finding a lot of interior design inspiration online but the style, price and quality considerations are broader than ever before. It’s simply overwhelming for most consumers looking to personalize a space,” said Mia Lewin, founder and CEO. “We are applying data science to the stylist experience to save consumers time and help them avoid costly mistakes. By pairing our customers with their very own home design shopping sherpa, we curate designer looks with hand-picked items that specifically fit our customer’s style, budget and needs.”
Spruce Up was incubated at Madrona Venture Labs, Madrona Venture Group’s in-house startup studio led by CEO Mike Fridgen.
“Mia and Mike are exactly what we look for in founders, as they bring domain and technical expertise to an issue that has hit everyone who has ever thought about creating a space that reflects their lifestyle and personality,” commenting Fridgen. “Home design is another vertical ripe for ML/AI disruption and we collectively see an opportunity to do for home design what StitchFix has done for apparel.”
Mia Lewin is a three-time Founder with deep domain expertise in design, ecommerce and lifestyle industries as a CEO, Product and Business Development Executive. A Scandinavian native, her true passion is design and creating beautiful and functional products and environments that enhance the way we live. She has scaled ecommerce experiences from $0 to $1.5Bn of GMV, worked with hundreds of interior designers and partnered with over 300 leading home & design brands. For Spruce Up, Mia worked hand in hand with the Madrona Venture Labs team as CEO-in-Residence, building a new way to shop for your home and uniting her love of design and consumer experience.
Mike Dierken, co-founder and CTO, has a deep technical background and has held leadership roles at Amazon and McKinsey & Co., and helped lead a startup through acquisition and to a subsequent IPO. Mike brings executive experience in team building, e-commerce platforms, cloud computing, big data analytics, machine learning and recommendation systems to the Spruce Up team.
Spruce Up is based in Seattle and is expecting to launch later this year. For more on the team, company and job opportunities, visit www.getspruceup.com.