Fat Lama has managed to rake in £1 million from a slew of angel investors, augmenting the £150,000 pre-Seed it raised in October 2016.
When interrogated on who provided the investment, the firm would only say that it was a group of individuals including a “successful tech entrepreneur … an international media executive and a very well-known executive at a global investment bank”.
A young company based in London, Fat Lama launched all of three months ago. It is a peer-to-peer rental site allowing people to loan and borrow belongings, such as lawn mowers or cameras. Their vision is to make it quick and easy for people to share their belongings. They are in the business of connecting people who need things, with others in their neighborhood that have it to lend, on an everyday basis.
All items that feature on the site list are fully insured, owing to an insurance agreement underwritten by Hiscox Ltd. According to the company, some of its users make more than £500 per month through the platform. Fat Lama CEO Chaz Englander said:
The rapid growth we’ve seen across users, listings and revenue is proof that people are looking to a more efficient model of ownership. Fat Lama offers an alternative to those concerned by overconsumption. Many people believe our planet is straining under the weight of our throwaway consumer culture – so much so that sharing possessions is not a luxury, but a necessity.
Englander, who has previous experience in early-stage investment, co-founded the company with Rosie Dallas, who is a marketing and branding specialist, and Owen Turner-Major, a developer.
According to the CEO, he sees the company’s latest raise as a key demonstration of the rapid growth of UK sharing economy, in spite of the funding fears and uncertainty around startups fuelled by Brexit. He said:
The hunger for UK sharing economy startups has never been stronger.
