Octopus et al. back Swoon Editions with £1.2m

The fresh capital will be used to expand the firm's product range and improve its marketing in the UK.

Octopus invested via the Octopus Titan VCTs. The VCTs are joint funds with Octopus Venture Partners, a network of around 100 business leaders, entrepreneurs and private investors.

The London-based GP aims to provide further funding for Swoon Editions in the future.

In its most recent deal, Octopus participated in an Accel-led $18m funding round in Calastone, a UK-based fund transaction network, in September this year. In the same month, the GP also backed virtual keyboard app SwiftKey in a $17.5m series-B round led by Index Ventures.

Octopus led a £3.7m series-B funding round in July for e-commerce technology company Amplience alongside Northstar Ventures. In May this year, the venture capital firm backed social media management start-up Conversocial with a joint £2.95m investment alongside DFJ Esprit.

In Index Ventures's latest transaction, the firm led a $20m investment in Egalet, a pharmaceutical company, in September this year. That same month, the VC backed Mind-NRG in a €6m series-B financing round alongside life science investor LRM.

Company
Swoon Editions previously operated under the name of Decoholic. It employs around 20 staff.

The firm designs furniture, creating prototypes that are evaluated by their customers. If the item finds approval, the company will then create limited editions of around 100 pieces for sale. The products will be paid for online and only then commissioned with furniture manufacturers.

People
Brian Harrison is Swoon Edition's CEO and co-founder. Debbie Williamson is also Swoon Edition's co-founder. Robin Klein led the investment for Index Ventures. Simon Andrews is responsible for early-stage investments at Octopus.

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• Topics
• UK / Ireland
• Consumer
• Early-stage
• Octopus Investments
• Index Ventures