A digital trading platform for Wood called VonWood, based in Amsterdam, revealed on Tuesday that it has raised €2.7 million from Peak, Dutch Founders Fund, Keen, and several other key partners.
The Dutch business claims that its goal is to open up the wood market to all consumers by disrupting the conventional supply chain and accelerating the platform’s growth.
The sawmill that splits the tree into planks and the companies that use the wood in their finished goods, such as importers, traders, agents, and others, are the main two intermediaries in the timber industry, according to the Dutch corporation.
The product is overpriced because of the middleman trade that raises the price of wood.
“There is little knowledge of the origin, quality, and working conditions in the fragmented timber sector. Large-scale purchasers of timber thus have little influence over the supply and run the danger of having to stop operations. On the other hand, Sawmills manufacture based on an estimate because they have little knowledge of demand, which frequently results in an excess or a shortfall of stock. We want to eliminate such risks by directly tying supply and demand together, says David de Jong, founder, and CEO of VonWood.
VonWood, a new online trading network that connects buyers and sellers of wood without the need for middlemen, was established by David de Jong and Minck Hermans in 2022.
The company wants to entirely transparently and cheaply streamline the internet trading procedure.
In addition to bringing buyers and sellers together, VonWood offers information on the origin, quality, and sustainability of the wood.
In addition to the customary FSC-approved wood replanting, the business also plants young trees as payment for each platform transaction.
A venture financing business called Keen Venture Partners supports outstanding teams and rapidly expanding European tech startups from seed to Series B.
“VonWood has quickly turned the timber market upside down. We are confident that VonWood can make a substantial contribution to the sustainable and open trade in wood. Robert Verwaayen, a partner at Keen, says, “We are eager to embark on this journey.
Peak is a seed-stage venture capital firm with headquarters in Amsterdam, Berlin, and Stockholm that makes investments all around Europe.
It takes guts to digitize an outdated market, but platform thinking is also necessary to better organize operations, according to Peak co-founder Johan van Mil. With the help of data-driven technology, VonWood has what it takes to modernize the timber industry.
The founders of WeTransfer, Just Eat, Treatwel, and fonQ founded the Amsterdam-based early-stage venture capital fund known as Dutch Founders Fund (DFF). DFF supports startup entrepreneurs in Europe and the MENA area by investing in B2B marketplaces and companies based on network effects.
Laurens Groenendijk, co-founder of Just Eat and investor at the Dutch Founders Fund, says: “Wood is essential in building, but most customers lack direct access to the sawmill. Now, VonWood is altering that. We have faith in the group, the output, and the long-lasting effects they produce.
Image Credit: VonWood
