Boost to enhance circular economy

 

Vilnius-based startup Tingit, the zero-effort repairs marketplace, has secured a pre-seed investment of €500,000, led by Firstpick, a Lithuanian VC fund, and accelerator for tech startups in the Baltics, with participation from BADideas.fund (Latvia), PurposeTech (Czech Republic), and Heartfelt Capital (Germany). By connecting consumers with repair specialists, the app offers a seamless repair experience with service booking, payment and shipping fully integrated into the platform.

"We own a lot of things and everything breaks at some point. Our possessions need and can be maintained to remain in use. We want to make repairs so simple it becomes a habit, just like brushing your teeth,” says Indre Viltrakyte, Co-Founder and CEO of Tingit.

Tingit has already completed over 600 orders and handled over 2,500 repair requests, many from returning clients. What sets Tingit apart from other repair platforms is the simplified process. "Users upload a quick video and we provide a quote for the best possible repair services tailored to that specific item. This way, we remove the hassle of selecting a service upfront, as many people aren’t sure what is even possible when it comes to repairs,” says Tadas Maslauskas, Co-founder and CTO at Tingit. Before joining Tingit, Tadas was leading engineering teams at Kilo Health, the second fastest-growing company in Europe.

The VC investors recognize the value of tech-driven businesses that extend the lifespan of goods and help users save money. Lithuania's first unicorn, Vinted, is an online marketplace for secondhand clothes and has become the top C2C second-hand fashion marketplace in Europe. In 2023, it had 105 million registered users worldwide and reached almost €600 million in revenue, proving the demand for sustainable consumerism. 

Jone Vaituleviciute, Managing Partner at Firstpick, emphasizes the gap Tingit will address: "There is still a void of knowledge when it comes to leveraging technology to enhance sustainability. That is why we are super excited to see how Tingit will educate consumers and help them create sustainable habits.”

With the funding of half a million euros, Tingit plans to launch the Service Provider Gateway which will enable any repair specialist to independently offer their services through the platform. An upcoming API will allow any brand, e-commerce site and marketplace to plug Tingit’s repairs network into their websites and seamlessly integrate a repair service into their operations. After a successful start in Lithuania, the startup plans to expand to other countries as well as introduce additional industries such as sports goods, toys, and consumer electronics.

Viltrakyte co-founded Tingit together with three other partners in 2023 after 15 years in the fashion industry, where she saw overproduction and overconsumption firsthand. Globally, 92 million tons of textile waste are produced annually, with items often worn only seven to ten times before being discarded. Keeping these clothes out of landfills is a major business opportunity: circular business models are projected to reach a market of $700 billion by 2030 and seize 23% of the global fashion market.

"We are entering the repair economy. Brands like Zara and Uniqlo have recently introduced after-sales repairs,” states Viltrakyte. "There are over 300,000 clothing retail businesses in Europe that will eventually join this move towards more sustainable consumption. With Tingit, we are committed to being at the forefront of this societal shift.”

In the long term, the CEO envisions Tingit as a global sustainability marketplace where brands, repair specialists, and consumers come together for frictionless repairs. "We want to be the first name that comes to mind when people think about any kind of repair,” says Viltrakyte.