Subscription model for designer furniture

Moving is exhausting: buying, dismantling, transporting and reassembling furniture are all activities you could well do without. The Swiss start-up Pabio wants to make your life easier by offering a subscription service for furniture. An interior designer puts together an interior design for the customer and the furniture is rented for one to five years, with the option to return or buy the furniture at the end of the rental period. If the furniture is returned, it will be cleaned, restored and re-rented at a reduced price using a circular economy approach.

The idea for the furniture subscription service was born in 2019. At the time, co-founder Carlo Baldini had just handed over the management of successful design agency Cleverclip and therefore had a lot of time to visit friends and acquaintances. The furnishings in their homes left something to be desired. As Baldini quickly discovered, this was not because people lacked an aesthetic sense or had no interest in beautiful surroundings. Rather, the high cost of fine furniture and the fact that many of the apartments were only rented were the main reasons. No one wants to buy expensive, high-quality furnishings or pay for an interior designer for a period of just three or four years.

The interior design experience for Pabio's customers is simple and straightforward: based on the floor plan and the desired style, a 3D model is created and furnished virtually by an interior designer. Pabio delivers the customised furnishing proposal within one to three working days. The customer can then 'walk' through his or her new apartment in the interactive model, look at every room, every piece of furniture, and even change pieces if necessary. If the client subscribes, it generally takes 2–10 weeks for the rooms to be furnished.

It currently costs between CHF 150 and 670 to rent the furniture, depending on the size of the apartment and the pieces selected.

The company is currently supplying its furniture rental services to around 100 homes in Switzerland and also launched the service in Berlin in December 2021. The expansion comes at the same time as the announcement of an USD 2.2 million investment round. Pabio is one of the first companies founded in Switzerland to receive support from Y Combinator, a Silicon Valley-based seed funding programme with an impressive portfolio of start-ups, including Airbnb, Dropbox and Coinbase.