OCCO, a designtech startup digitalises the interior design industry. In its maiden financing round, this startup picked up €750k ($860k) from its lead investor Oliver Ahlberg, the founder of Skeleton Technologies.
European expansion plans
The startup will use the investment to expand its presence to new European markets. Already, OCCO is available in Estonia and the Netherlands and has amassed 250 users in these regions, announced the company the soft launch. Earlier, OCCO wants to expand into ten new European markets over the next two years besides the Netherlands.
Oliver Ahlberg will also join OCCO as an advisor to support its expansion and help raise finance for future growth plans. He said, “I think for many people it would seem rather archaic to buy a plane ticket from a travel agency or order something from a paper catalogue. But that’s the daily life of interior designers: paper catalogues, emails, resellers. OCCO’s aim is to innovate all that and that’s what appealed to me. I’ve always believed that if something was done the same way 15 years ago as it is today, it’s a great opportunity to create value.”
Jan Plaan, CEO of Arhitekt11 that uses the OCCO platform to become an everyday tool for interior designers said, “In our team, we see an important place for the platform in future interior design projects, especially from the point of view of a more professional and efficient service,” Plaan added.
AI-powered platform
Founded by Ander Sõõrumaa and Paul Veetõusme in 2016, OCCO to provide interior furnishing solutions. It has completed over 1,000 projects for companies such as Bolt, Pipedrive, Nasdaq, Sorainen, Thermory, Tallink and Confido. Due to the time consuming and archaic process of flipping through furniture catalogues to find the right piece for the interior design project, OCCO shifted its focus to provide a digital solution for the interior design industry in 2020.
The platform saves up to 27% of working time for interior architects, and OCCO has quickly grown into an international team of over 50 industry experts with headquarters in Tallinn and Amsterdam. It has digitised the product catalogue of over 800 high-quality interior design brands from Europe.
According to interior architect Casper Schwarz, the platform has provided surprising and exciting search results that have led him and his team to different choices and proposals in their interior design projects. “It is great to learn about new or unfamiliar manufacturers and their products. It saves us time in research for new products and it makes it easier to find solutions within our projects’ budget boundaries,“ Schwartz added.
OCCO’s AI-based platform already helps hundreds of designers, and we are constantly working on developing this product based on user feedback,“ said OCCO’s co-founder and CEO, Ander Sõõrumaa.
What does OCCO do?
OCCO focuses to disrupt the outdated interior design industry and brings innovation to design professionals. Its extensive database helps interior designers and architects find suitable products or alternatives faster than ever, thereby saving time and money. It has furnished over 400 projects internationally, ranging from office buildings, hotels to health centres, thereby making it a reliable partner for both interior architects and clients.
The digital tool is designed for interior architects to simplify their work and make the whole work process smart and convenient. The tool makes it possible to quickly find different products and their alternatives. Furthermore, one can quickly inquire about the price and technical information of the products and save up to 30% of the time for interior architects.
