Kaiyo
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Kaiyo (legally Furnishare) was a New York-based online resale platform for secondhand furniture, founded by Alpay Koralturk in 2015. It offered a full-service marketplace handling pickup, product photography and white-glove delivery, and aimed to drive participation in the circular economy. After a $36 million Series B in 2022 brought total funding to nearly $50 million, the company expanded from the East Coast to the West Coast and opened its first physical pop-up in 2024.
02 / Kaiyo FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Kaiyo collapsed when the post-pandemic furniture boom turned into a sector-wide slowdown: shoppers pulled back on large purchases and home buying amid high mortgage rates, drying up sales across furniture retailers. The company began an orderly wind-down in August 2024, telling sellers it could not complete their payouts and directing them to file claims. Customers complained of withheld payments, locking them out of accounts, and the New York attorney general's office confirmed it was reviewing complaints.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Operations ended
BBB correspondence quotes Furnishare dba Kaiyo stating it is in an orderly wind-down, operations only through end of August 2024, and sellers will file Proof of Claims.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
In August 2024 the company emailed customers that Furnishare dba Kaiyo was in the initial phase of an orderly wind-down and could not complete seller payouts, with a claims process to follow.
- 02
Operations continued only through the end of August 2024, with all aspects of the business wound down systematically.
- 03
Sellers filed complaints over withheld payments; the New York attorney general's office confirmed it was reviewing them.
- 04
No public loss figure was disclosed for the wind-down.