The first move was launching our multi-brand platform Dormando. In the beginning, we only sold other brands and the first sales were two Dunlopillo mattresses. Funnily enough, we ended up buying this brand in 2016. In these early stages, we were a team of just 7 and were working out of a tiny, 14 m² office which we nicknamed ”The Foxhole".

As our business model proved successful, we extended our product portfolio and, already convinced that the long-term solution would be omnichannel, we opened a showroom in Offenbach called Bettzeit. This also became our new office—space we desperately needed as we added 13 new members to our team.

While busy running and scaling Dormando, we decided to branch out and create our own brand alongside. We had the background needed to develop a great product: Manuel's previous industry experience with medical mattresses and our 2-year market experience with Dormando. Therefore, three months and many late nights later, Emma® was born. We'd recognised early on that the principle of ‘trying it out’ is the key to success—an idea that still determines our daily business today. This led us to offer consumers the novelty of mattress trials that lasted 100 nights with free delivery and returns. By now, we were at 55 team members and so we moved once again—this time to a 285 m² office space.

We've always been ambitious and had our sights set on global growth. So, after launching the Emma mattress in Germany the previous year, we then launched it in Austria, Switzerland, Poland, the Netherlands and the UK as well. We also acquired Dunlopillo's brand rights for Germany and Austria. Setting the base for further growth by leveraging our ability in creating superior sleep products, we built-up an in-house Research & Development team. With a wide variety of skills, this team pushes the boundaries of what material, technology and neuroscience can do for sleep.

This was the year where the Emma mattress won 2 awards: UK's Which? and Netherlands' Consumentenbond. This was proof of the quality of our product and that online mattress suppliers could successfully compete with traditional brands. Emma is a team with “skin in the game” and we value the impact of testing over endless planning—this ensures our accelerated growth. As a result, we expanded into 5 more countries and launched Emma in France, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Portugal. The decision to expand paid off and our yearly revenue reached €33 million—meaning Emma had now broken even.

Our growth continued to climb as we launched Emma in Sweden, Denmark, China, the USA and India. And at 176 people, we had outgrown our office once again and moved to a new 2,061 m² space. This accelerated growth is largely thanks to the "Emma way"—we're agile, execution-orientated and move at a fast and efficient pace. We decided we needed a way to transfer this mindset to future Emmies. The solution? We founded the Emma Sleep University.

The year began with us exhibiting at various trade fairs like imm Cologne (Germany) and Salone del Mobile (Italy). We were on an omnichannel-mission to disrupt the sleep industry. As a result, we launched our new Dunlopillo Smart Select Series which introduced our patented graphite technology to the market. Emma was now online in over 20 countries after launching in Ireland, Brazil, Mexico, Australia and Canada. Intent on becoming a true international player, we opened Emma Southeast Asia in Manila. To stay focused, we decided to close Dormando and exclusively sell our own products.

Emma was going from strength to strength. In a single year, we sold 1.5 million mattresses and grew our yearly revenue by 170%. With this, we outpaced several competitors and established ourselves as the world's leading D2C sleep brand. Our monumental success didn't go unnoticed and in April 2020 Emma merged with the Haniel Group. With Haniel as a strong partner at our side, we saw it as an opportunity to move to a whole new level of growth.

The dedicated work of Emma's Research and Development team meant sleep entered a whole new sphere as we launched Emma Motion—the world's most advanced smart mattress. Using innovative and proprietary technology, we now offer customers a product that silently adjusts to their sleeping positions throughout the night. With the launch of this mattress, we took a huge step towards fulfilling our mission: to change the way people sleep. Soon we'll provide an individual sunrise for everyone—stay tuned.