Interior design video marketplace, The Expert, raises $3 million

LA-based The Expert, a platform for consultation with interior designers has raised a $3 million seed funding round led by Forerunner Ventures, with participation from Sweet Capital, Promus Ventures, Golden Ventures, Jeffrey Katzenberg’s WndrCo, AD 100 designer Brigette Romanek and CEO/founder of goop, Gwyneth Paltrow. Through this startup, experts offer one-on-one consultation to their clientele based on their home layouts or floor plans, inspirations that the clients upload in advance for the designers to study and the availability of their chosen designer. They connect over a Zoom call and discussions further take place. The Expert features 85 designers, and the company claims that it has approximately 700 designers on standby to join the platform. In a statement, Gwyneth Paltrow said: “I’ve always felt that access to great design – and those who create it – is too rare of a commodity. It’s a game-changer for someone without the budget for a full-time designer to have this roster of talent on speed dial.” Digitization of interior design is fairly new in the market. The Expert, a startup, has some competition in the form of Modsy and Havenly.