Framework’s Series A-1 and Community Participation

Series A-1 animated text

Today we’re announcing $18M in new funding from an incredible set of investors, with a $17M Series A-1 round led by Spark Capital, with Buckley Ventures, Anzu Partners, Cooler Master, and Pathbreaker Ventures participating. We started just over four years ago with a vision to remake consumer electronics to respect people and the planet. We chose to take on the notebook space first to prove that it’s possible to fix even the most mature, competitive categories with an excellent product that is simple to repair, upgrade, and customize. We’ve continued to increase our sales and market share substantially each year as the industry broadly has struggled. It’s clear that our commitment to longevity is resonating. It’s ultimately your belief in our mission and products that drives our success.

When we closed a Series A round two years ago, we shared our strategy around fundraising, which is to raise as little as possible and focus funds on efficiently expanding the reach of our mission. You can now see the results of that investment with Framework Laptop 16 out in customers’ hands. With this new round, we’re continuing to deepen support for our existing customers, scaling the reach of our current products, and extending to additional product categories that let us empower new consumers and businesses. Ultimately, we need for everyone in the world to have the option for a longer-lasting product, no matter the category.

A core focus of this fundraise beyond taking in capital is bringing strategic connections and expertise. We chose each of our new investors based on their belief in our mission, the strengths of their teams, the companies they work with, and the reach of their networks. We’ve had a number of early partnership discussions with other startups in our investors’ portfolios, and we’re excited to share more about this as we deliver on the results. Cooler Master is a key strategic partner-turned-investor, having been both the supplier for our Framework Laptop 16 thermal system and the first company to join the Framework ecosystem with a compatible product, a case that enables Framework Laptop Mainboard reuse. We have additional collaborations with the Cooler Master team in incubation now.

There is one group of people who are more strategically important than any other: the Framework community. The third most common question we’ve gotten since starting Framework (after “AMD when?” and “Upgradeable graphics when?”) is “Can I invest in Framework?”. The answer is finally… possibly. In addition to the $17M of funds we’ve raised from traditional investors, we’re raising a $1M community round to enable 100 of you to invest $10,000 each in Framework. Investing in startups is approximately the riskiest place imaginable to put your money, and statistically, the most likely outcome for any individual early-stage startup investment is for it to become worthless. With that in mind, for both moral and regulatory reasons, we’re limiting participation to individuals and entities that meet the SEC’s Accredited Investor qualifications. This also allows us to publicly share the existence of this fundraising under the SEC’s 506(c) regulations. If you qualify as an Accredited Investor, believe in our mission and strategy, and are interested in investing in this round, you can get more details and apply here.

There’s one other way you can participate in our mission, which is to join our team! To actually drive the growth that our new funding enables, we’re adding a few key roles across Framework, including a Product Marketing Manager and a Supply Chain Manager. You can check out all of our open roles on our careers page. We’re eager to fix this industry together as quickly as we can.

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Super excited, I would love to support framework. Thank you for making this opportunity happen!

Congratulations!

A media article about this topic:

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Important Note: According to the SEC page, you need at least $1 million net worth (excluding your primary residence) or currently make over $200,000/year (and have made over $200,000/year during the last 2 previous years) in order to qualify as an “accredited investor.” Companies have slightly different rules. This disqualifies a vast majority of Framework customers.

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Also, no voting rights: In connection with this investment, the RUV will sign a proxy voting agreement with Framework’s Founder and CEO, Nirav Patel that will allow him to determine how to vote the RUV’s shares for most matters submitted to stockholders for approval.

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I think those are pretty reasonable thresholds to meet in order to invest 10k in a single start-up. That would mean 1% of your money or 5% of your income. Conscious investors shouldn’t invest more than single digit percentages of their money in VC funds/start-ups imho.

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Hi,
I would be interested more on an explanation of what the $18M will be spent on.
Although I can guess at this, I don’t know for sure. For example, it could just be for working capital so they can ship more units quicker, and development resources so they can fix bugs quicker, and bringing more of the development in house, if they feel they need more control over it and schedules. I get the impression from reading all the threads here that they feel very constrained in how flexible they can be due to lack of funds.

For example, they said that the BIOS features at product release would not change after product release, only bug fixes. I would like the BIOS to be open sourced, so the community can add whatever features they wish, but FW don’t have the resources currently to support anything like that. I feel it is more a good design, MVP software approach at the moment.
Agreed, open sourcing the BIOS is difficult, because then a user could tweak a setting, and fry the motherboard.

that is too bad, would be cool to have a say as a community if you put up that much money

Since the community investment opportunity requires the SEC Accredited Investor qualification, and since the SEC is a US Government institution, does this mean this is only open to US persons?

No, you can be in another country as long as you meet the SEC’s Accredited Investor qualifications. Note that individuals or those in countries that the US has trade restrictions with may not be able to participate.

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Another media article about this topic:

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Well blast, don’t quite make the SD requirements. Very cool you’re opening it up, but while I can easily get that from my other investments to put in, I don’t meet those SEC requirements :frowning:

I do appreciate the effort to try directly investing a bit more accessible to the rest of us though.

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For those who have applied, did you receive an email confirmation or something of that sort? I didn’t receive an email confirmation and am wondering if something went wrong with my attempted signup :thinking:.

As Framework expands into new product lines, I’d like to see more interoperability between components and products. Like it would be great if a Framework TV was designed with a controller board that could be replaced with a Framework Laptop 13 mainboard. Or a Framework home monitoring system reuse the webcam module. Or a Framework wireless trackpad accessory reuse the laptop trackpad and fingerprint sensor button.

ZOMG, that seems like an amazing idea. Or at least, a fairly dumb TV, that has a spot for a FW13 mainboard or something like that. That’d be so cool!

I’d totally love to invest $10k into Framwork. Unfortunately I don’t meet the requirements. :frowning:

Finally, the Framework Printer

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To answer your question, I did not receive the email either. It leaves a lot of open questions. Did the form work? When will we get to see financials to get our gauge of the financial health of the company before investing? Etc.

Hopefully, we hear something back soon!

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