Founded in 2020 by Aïssa Laroussi, Enky is a startup that provides furniture rentals for professionals that has its roots in Belgium and has since expanded into France and the UK, with projects also in Switzerland and southern Europe. The twenty-strong team is now working to establish itself in the Luxembourg market.
Enky’s business is based on the rental of furniture for companies, via a monthly subscription system that gives access to a vast catalogue of furniture produced in a high-quality, environmentally-friendly manner (solid wood, certified, chemical-free, dismantlable, repairable, produced in Europe, etc.). This system allows companies to enjoy the benefits of use without the burden of ownership, to avoid using cash to purchase furniture, and to respond more flexibly to changes in the size of their teams, while at the same time acting in an environmentally-friendly way by encouraging the re-use of furniture.
“Mentalities are changing and use is increasingly taking precedence over possession,” says Laroussi, co-founder and CEO of Enky, who is convinced that the furniture industry is undergoing a transformation. “We have estimated that over the next 10 to 15 years, more than half of all businesses could be using this type of service,” says Laroussi. “The secondhand market is also growing very strongly, by 9.1% for B-to-B furniture. With ESG requirements, companies are increasingly looking for circular solutions, and Enky is responding to this demand.”
Over a million references
The professionals who call on Enky have profiles ranging from small businesses to the hotel sector and furnished flat rentals. The products most in demand are generally tables and chairs of all kinds, but also furniture for reception areas, acoustic booths and furniture for compartmentalising spaces. “The average duration of rental contracts is four to five years, and the most popular are those with no purchase option,” explains the CEO. “Today, Enky’s catalogue contains around one million items corresponding to different variations of around 200 products from some forty brands. We choose high-quality furniture that we offer new. At the same time, we also buy second-hand furniture from the 1960s, 70s and 80s, which is of high quality and represents a form of investment, while at the same time responding to a trend. We work a lot with architects and interior designers who suggest our solution to their clients. So we have chosen not to have this service in-house, but rather to work in partnership with these professionals.”
The same partnership approach is used for their logistics, transport and installation needs. For Luxembourg, the partners have not yet been chosen.
The Enky team is made up of around twenty people. Photo: Enky
“In addition, we have just launched a new system, inspired by the lease-back system, which offers to buy back furniture that already exists in companies. This enables companies to free up cash, re-let their furniture and therefore retain its use, while offering them the opportunity to upgrade their layout. This furniture can then be put back on the market for other companies,” explains Laroussi.
An alternative investment system
But to buy this furniture, funds are needed. For this, Enky has chosen to develop through crowdfunding. “I originally came from the fintech sector and co-founded Edebex, for which we had already developed this type of financing. Enky currently has around 2,000 investors, who have raised €2.5m through crowdfunding,” explains Laroussi.
With an entry ticket of €500, the investment is simply made online, on the Enky website, and a return of between 6 and 8.5% is announced. “The profile of our investors is fairly young--aged 35 on average--who are educated about savings and keen on alternative investments that offer meaning and added value. What’s also interesting is that half of our investors come from sponsorship. One of our great sources of pride is that our investors are ambassadors, with projects that come to us thanks to our investors. It’s a very interesting marketing force.” This even led Enky to open up its capital to the tune of one million euros at the end of last year. At present, they are approaching €700,000 raised in this way.
This article was originally published in .