Materials Market has launched its online building materials marketplace – a brand new, collaborative model promising a new ‘win-win’ route to market for merchants and distributors.
Already supporting a large network of supplier partners, the Materials Market website launched in November 2020, Materials Market is the new kid on the block for building material sales. It represents an innovative digital solution to ease supply chain issues and enabling transparent, simple customer transactions for suppliers across the UK.
Materials Market was founded in August 2019 following a pre-seed funding round of £130k from angel investors, further bolstered by a £1.5m raise from Fuel Ventures in a seed funding round in September 2021.
The top online marketplaces in the world transacted over £1.47 trillion in 2019, accounting for 58% of global online sales, a statistic that is growing rapidly, particularly in light of the pandemic. Samuel Hunt, Co-Founder & CEO at Materials Market, explains how his solution will bring this sea-change to the construction industry:
“The sector has been slower than others to move to a digital-first approach, and so we wanted to create a one-stop shop that connects customers and suppliers in real time, which would allow for better prices and faster deliveries, plus a wider market for distributors and merchants than their bricks and mortar stores.
“The past 18 months has put a huge strain on the sector in general, with many proactive suppliers rapidly rethinking their routes to market. Our online platform allows suppliers to leverage the popular new marketplace model and benefit from steady growth potential.”
