Jellyfish co-founder Rob Pierre has joined ufurnish.com as an advisor after investing £500k in the search and comparison website for home furnishings.
ufurnish.com was founded by Deirdre Mc Gettrick and Ray Wright to simplify searching for home furniture and furnishings by bringing products from multiple retailers together on one easy to navigate website.
The business has grown rapidly and now boasts 100+ retailers including John Lewis, Wayfair, Heal’s, Benson for Beds, Dunelm, OKA and many more.
ufurnish.com has raised over £5m since launching in late 2020, with prominent investors including Rosaleen Blair (founder and chair of Alexander Mann Solutions) and Tony Smurfit (CEO of paper and packaging company Smurfit Kappa Group). The business is now strengthening its advisory board ahead of an investment round planned for 2024 in which ufurnish.com aims to become the ‘go-to” platform in the UK for home furnishing.
Pierre, who will join the advisory board to leveraging his media expertise and scale ufurnish.com alongside making his £500k capital investment, said: “After meeting Deirdre and Ray, I felt they were creating something incredibly innovative that will change and enhance the way in which people furnish their homes. I’ve always been excited about innovation and ufurnish.com absolutely solves a major consumer problem. This is a particularly interesting time in the market for digital businesses who can lean into a rapidly growing retail media space.”
Pierre is one of the UK’s most successful media entrepreneurs. He co-founded digital marketing agency Jellyfish in 2005, and as chief executive grew the business from scratch to 38 offices worldwide employing more than 2,000 people. The company’s Northern operations include offices in Manchester and Leeds, as well as the 2019 acquisition of Warrington agency Latitude. In June of 2023, Pierre completed the sale of Jellyfish to The Brandtech Group.
McGettrick said: “Rob Pierre is a media visionary, he is an entrepreneur and creative talent with a deep understanding of consumer behaviour, media markets and value creation. Above all, Rob is a passionate problem solver and loves creating and scaling solutions that solve problems.”
She added that the philosophy of ufurnish.com is to always work with the best brains in the market: “If you want to be the best, you’ve got to work with the best and, I’m really excited about working with Rob to take ufurnish.com to the next level in our growth journey.”
