Baru

Baru created a new supply chain to cuts costs by 40% for distribution by tapping into $500 million of installed but underused manufacturing equipment.

Baru started its marketplace sales and production of cabinetry and furniture with annual industry revenues of $35 billion. Baru operating methods avoid distribution activities that waste $15 billion of industry revenues.

Baru has a pending project to supply $425 thousand in high-quality custom-made cabinetry for a 214-unit apartment building. Baru pricing beat IKEA and another supplier of builder-grade stock cabinetry.

Baru earned its first patent for using augmented reality to control the manufacturing code for custom manufacturing.

1. Consumers in homes that are in sizes that are challenging to furnish.
2. Interior designers needing specific custom products for projects.
3. Businesses who need product sets with similar designs but in a large number of different sizes.

$18 billion of wood furniture is purchased annually in the United States.

Over 40% of retail revenues are wasted on freight and warehousing costs.

Baru created a new supply chain that cuts costs by 40% by eliminating freight and warehousing costs. We do this by tapping into $500 million of installed but underused manufacturing equipment nationwide.

Every other furniture retailer competes with BARU.

However, they are mostly reliant on long supply chains with centralized mass-production manufacturing sites that produce high volumes of standardized products. They will rarely produce a customized product for a buyer, and if they do accept custom orders, they are slow to deliver and very costly.

BARU is the first to put an easy-to-use and economical customer interface on local manufacturing capacity for fast and affordable custom goods.

Despite its competitive prices, because BARU avoids inventory and complex logistics costs, we can use higher-grade materials and offer more choices than most retailers.

There are four reasons why BARU’s time has come:

1. Shoppers have become accustomed to and want fast purchasing convenience. But it’s often difficult to find furniture in the size needed. BARU makes buying custom furniture easy and affordable.

2. Software-driven manufacturing automation is underused in wood workshops throughout the United States. BARU uses that capacity.

3. Using Augmented Reality as a tool to control manufacturing is now feasible. And we believe that product customization is one of the most powerful uses of AR technology. BARU built that technology.

4. A grown man's weight in CO2 emissions is avoided for every bedroom dresser that is made in your hometown instead of overseas. BARU helps the environment.

BARU sells custom wood furniture. The furniture is made after the purchase using idle manufacturing assets in the customers' hometowns.

BARU's cost of goods sold includes materials for production and production services from our manufacturing network partners.

Selling costs are related to e-commerce and marketing. Some product development costs and technology improvements will also be incurred.

At scale, EBITDA is estimated to be up to 20% of sales.

Baru sells products and sends materials and digital instructions for manufacturing robotics to manufacturers with installed but underused machines. Baru earns above industry-average profit margins by avoiding long-distance freight, warehousing, and fixed asset investments that typically consume half of the cash generated from sales.

2020 Use of Funds
65% Sales & Marketing
19% Technology Improvements
16% Administrative and Legal

Convertible SAFE with a $5.5M valuation cap, 20% discount, pro-rata rights

1. If we can't find the right marketing message that resonates with customers we will underperform or fail.

2. If we cannot iterate and respond to market information faster than competitors, we may be overtaken by a competitor. That might cause the development of our marketplace and platform’s economic network effects to fail or be weak.

3. If the COVID-19-induced economic recession is prolonged and consumers choose to not buy furniture or only buy the furniture at prices at which we cannot compete, we will likely fail.

gBeta / Gener8tor
GSV Bootcamp

not applicable

Utility patent pending for methodology and technology