Giovanni (Class of 2018) founded Yndica, a company that takes a new, holistic marketing approach for innovative brands.
Yndica provides a unique advertising platform by physically displaying a curated selection of brands or products inside an immersive pod that can be placed in a key location. Customers can purchase displayed items instantly from any smartphone using an app. Yndica gives brands visibility in prime retail spaces at a fraction of the usual cost, whilst offering a new sales channel.
Before joining NEF, Giovanni was a product designer and studied at Central St Martins at the University of the Arts London. Giovanni took an unusual path into entrepreneurship, fuelled by the desire to build, grow and have ownership of his own design projects. Giovanni spotted a challenge that many new consumer brands face – the difficulty in establishing a strong physical retail presence, despite the fact that the highest percentage of retail happens physically. Giovanni joined NEF to learn how to set a business up in the UK, and to be surrounded by people who were motivated, competitive and on the same wavelength. Since joining NEF, Giovanni has rethought Yndica’s business model, harnessed the use of technology and taken a big leap forward. Giovanni has even found a co-founder through the cohort, which has been invaluable to him.
Yndica was recently chosen as one of the top 50 creative start-ups in London and the company also secured investment at the NEF Pitch Days. Giovanni is on a mission to make Yndica a 24-hour global business. His goal is to have more physical locations than any other brand in the UK. Giovanni has raised £1 million to date which will help him fuel the next stage of his company’s growth and he is looking forward to the day where he can pay it forward and take on his own NEFer.
The learning and development programme workshops have been very valuable to me. There is so much learning when the cohort gets together. In every workshop, I learned something new and the subjects we covered were incredibly important. The NEF network is also very valuable, the mentors and coaches shared opinions and knowledge that was very insightful and I’ve seen the benefits of the community with my own eyes.
Find out more about the NEF+ programme here.
