For Maya Lindberg, the wake-up call came during the 2023 holiday season. Her sustainable fashion marketplace, Greenly, was experiencing the kind of growth most founders dream about – and it was about to break their infrastructure. "Our servers were crying," she says with a wry smile, sitting in Greenly's sun-filled Stockholm headquarters. "We had 400,000 customers trying to make conscious fashion choices, and our platform was struggling to keep up. It was a good problem to have, but still a problem."

The bootstrap dilemma

Greenly had done something remarkable in the startup world: reached €8M in annual revenue without taking any external funding. Their marketplace, connecting eco-conscious consumers with sustainable fashion brands, had grown entirely through word of mouth and a passionate community. But their success was becoming their biggest challenge.

"We were proudly bootstrapped," Maya explains, surrounded by racks of sustainable clothing from their partner brands. "But we needed to invest heavily in our technology stack to serve our growing customer base. Traditional banks looked at our numbers and saw a profitable business, but they didn't understand why we needed millions for technical infrastructure."

Enter Finns

It was a chance meeting at a Stockholm tech conference that brought Maya together with Finns' sustainability sector lead, Emma Nordström. "Within ten minutes of conversation, Emma had mapped out our entire technical debt challenge on a napkin," Maya recalls. "She understood immediately that we weren't just another e-commerce platform – we were building critical infrastructure for the future of sustainable retail."

What followed was unlike any financing discussion Maya had experienced. "Finns didn't just look at our numbers. They looked at our impact metrics, our customer retention, our brand partnerships. They understood that our technical infrastructure wasn't just about handling transactions – it was about building trust in sustainable fashion."

Beyond traditional financing

Within three weeks, Greenly had secured €5 million in growth financing through Finns' specialized retail tech program. But the real value came after the money landed. "Finns connected us with their portfolio company that had solved similar scaling challenges," Maya explains. "Their CTO spent two days with our team, helping us architect our new infrastructure. That kind of knowledge sharing is priceless."

The results exceeded their most optimistic projections:

• Platform uptime improved from 97% to 99.99%

• Average page load time decreased by 68%

• Customer satisfaction scores increased by 22%

• Monthly active users grew by 150% in six months

Navigating growth challenges

Not every aspect of scaling was smooth sailing. When a key sustainable fashion brand on their platform was acquired by a fast-fashion conglomerate, Greenly faced a difficult decision about maintaining their marketplace integrity.

"That's when Finns really proved their worth," says Viktor Andersson, Greenly's COO. "Our account manager had dealt with similar ethical dilemmas in their portfolio. They helped us develop a clear framework for brand partnerships that actually strengthened our position in the market."

The ripple effect

Today, Greenly processes over €100 million in sustainable fashion transactions annually. Their technology platform has become the gold standard for transparency in ethical fashion retail, and they've expanded into four new European markets.

"What Finns understood, that others didn't, was that we weren't just scaling a business – we were scaling impact," Maya reflects. "Every time our platform handles another thousand transactions, that's thousands of conscious choices for sustainable fashion. That's the kind of growth story that traditional financing often misses."

Looking ahead

As Greenly prepares for expansion into North America, Maya is clear about one thing: "We're still proud of our bootstrapped roots, but Finns showed us that smart capital with the right partner can accelerate not just your growth, but your impact. They helped us stay true to our mission while scaling our reach."

For other founders navigating the balance between growth and impact, Maya offers this advice: "Look for partners who understand that financial success and positive impact aren't mutually exclusive. With Finns, we found a partner who helps us maximize both."

As our interview concludes, Maya shows me their latest feature: a real-time impact tracker showing the carbon emissions saved through their platform. "This is what smart financing looks like," she says, pointing to the growing numbers. "It's not just about growing bigger – it's about growing better."