Why we Invested: Powered by People

Powered by People (PBP) co-Founders, Ella Peinovich-Griffith and Hedvig Alexander are leading a revolution to “Power” owners of small and mid-sized creative manufacturing and handmade product businesses from emerging markets around the world.

Product

The PBP platform is a mobile-first, distributed manufacturing platform offering online logistic tools, financing solutions, and B2B marketplaces. The supply chain logistics platform lets retail buyers, boutique manufacturing organizations, and makers coordinate production, facilitate financing, and connect and manage an untapped and powerful distributed supply chain.

People

Ella’s success running a Kenyan e-commerce/DTC platform, and Hedvig’s experience managing large development programmes for the United Nations in Afghanistan provide the foundation for PBP’s worldwide team.

Market

E-commerce has continued its explosive growth, and consumers are increasingly looking for product differentiation. To meet this demand, PBP is working to accelerate the rise of boutique manufacturing focused on small batch production offering more choice and uniqueness. Boutique manufacturing is realizing 20% annual growth and is on track to reach $1 trillion of the $25 trillion retail market by 2023.

Co-investors

TBD Angels is a 140-person-strong of like-minded company operators who thrive on sharing advice, guidance and capital with talented entrepreneurs. TBD Angels is happy to be joined by high-networth partners affiliated with DraftKings, Skillz, and Uber, as well as African institutional investors, Good+Well Ventures. PBP has also received financial support from Founders Factory, Mercy Corps, and the Mastercard Foundation.

Matthew Sutton and Ted Selig led the investment and are members of TBD Angels.