How a Finnish Startup Cracked the Code for Shipping Sofas Worldwide

Jan de Vries · 2026-09-30

So, you know how buying a sofa online can be a total headache? You find the perfect one, and then you see the shipping cost—it’s almost as much as the furniture itself. And if it’s coming from another country? Forget about it. Well, a little company from Helsinki just figured out how to smash that problem to pieces, and they’ve got the funding to prove it. KHOY, a direct-to-consumer furniture brand, just secured a $2.1 million growth round. The lead investor was Finnish private equity firm Virta Equity, with Innovestor and a group of angel investors joining in. This isn't just money for a cool idea; it's fuel for a business that's already profitable and growing like crazy. ### The Secret Is in the Box Here’s the genius part. KHOY designs premium sofa beds that vacuum-pack down into compact, flat cardboard boxes. Think about those space-saver bags for your winter clothes, but for an entire piece of furniture. Once it arrives at your home, you open the box, and it expands to its full size. No more wrestling with a massive, awkward crate through your front door. Heikki Kivirinta, CEO of Virta Equity, put it perfectly: “KHOY has solved something the furniture industry has struggled with: how to sell and ship large, bulky products across borders without the cost eating the margin.” ### From a Hotel Request to a Red Dot Award The story started back in 2022. The founders—Visa Friström, András Kelemen, and Jukka Salmikukka—got a specific request from their first customer, the hospitality brand BobW. They needed a sofa bed that was comfortable enough for someone to sleep on every night, yet practical for apartments all over Europe. That initial challenge led to a design so good it won a Red Dot Design Award in 2026. They launched their first product in June 2024. The growth since then has been nothing short of explosive. In 2025, revenue hit $4.6 million. That's a 13-fold jump from the year before. Right now, they're growing at 166% year-on-year and expect to more than double revenue again this year. - **International from the start:** Over 80% of sales come from outside Finland. - **Top markets:** Germany and France led the way in 2025. - **Rapid expansion:** Notable sales also rolled in from the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Ireland, Sweden, and Denmark. ### Why This Changes the Game for Furniture Furniture has always been a stubbornly local business. The logistics of moving a couch are a nightmare. It’s heavy, it’s bulky, and it’s expensive to store. KHOY’s vacuum-packing method cuts those delivery costs by up to 95% compared to traditional methods. That saving lets them sell directly to consumers across multiple countries without the price skyrocketing. “We have proven there is strong demand for a simpler way to buy furniture online,” said CEO Visa Friström. “Our ambition is to build KHOY into a major global online brand, with European quality.” ### What’s Next? Scaling a Proven Model So, what does a startup do with $2.1 million when it's already profitable? They scale. Fast. The plan is to deepen their reach across the European Union, Switzerland, and the UK. And they're accelerating a push into the United States, where they quietly launched operations just a couple of weeks ago. They’ll also keep developing their products, brand, and operations. As Friström notes, the hard part is done. “We already know the model works across borders—for us, the next phase is about scale.” It’s a classic story of innovation solving a real-world pain point. They didn’t just make a new sofa; they reinvented how it gets to your living room. And now, they’re bringing that solution to a global market, one compact box at a time.