Estonian sauna-startup Huum raises €400,000

Tartu, Estonia-based sauna technology firm Huum said it expects annual revenues to top 1 million euros for the first time this year as it raised 400,000 euros crowdfunding round to support the expansion and meet the rising demand for home saunas.

HUUM’s crowdfunding campaign was launched on Thursday through Funderbeam and the minimum target of €150,000 was reached within one hour and more than €400,000 has already been raised over the weekend – thanks largely to investors based in Estonia, as well as HUUM’s existing customers around the world. The campaign will run for one month.

The concept for HUUM’s sauna products originally came from students at the Estonian Academy of Arts and have proved popular around the world for some key features — minimal metal and maximum stone capacity, and technology like a wall-mounted controller and a mobile app, which can now work through either a WiFi or GSM connection.

“The company is now unveiling new sauna heater designs named Cliff and Steel, which will be available from 2020, while also rolling out more sauna control features for its app. The new heaters are designed for smaller saunas with less power input, making them ideal to meet the surge in demand for home saunas across Europe,” the company said in a statement.

Siim Nellis, the founder of HUUM, explains: “Saunas are rapidly becoming more popular around the world and not just in gyms and spas, but also increasingly in people’s homes like we are used to in Estonia.”

“We are building on Estonia’s reputation for cutting-edge technology, but also literally building the hardware too using sleek and affordable Nordic design,” Nellis said.

“We strongly believe the sauna can be Estonia’s next big export success story. We already have supportive customers around the world helping us spread the word about HUUM further and we are particularly honoured to receive investment interest from existing HUUM users as this is the ultimate positive customer feedback,” he added.