Co-founders of specialist repairs service provider The Restory, Vanessa Jacobs and Emily Rea, have launched a new software company that will operate in the same arena, calling it Circulo. By Leatherbiz.

London-based The Restory launched in 2017 offering brands and consumers a repair service that had high levels of customer service, a love of craftsmanship and a passion for sustainability at its core.

New investors acquired a controlling stake in the company in 2022. Unhappy at some of the changes the new investors wanted to make, the founders walked away in February 2023. One month later, The Restory went into liquidation.

Ms Jacobs and Ms Rea are now using their “battle-tested” knowledge and experience to launch Circulo, with software development specialist Karm Khanna, and a former colleague at The Restory, Vipaasha Sheel.

At the time of Circulo’s launch, Vanessa Jacobs explained that it would work as a software as a service (SaaS) solution that will enable brands, retailers, repair providers, and repair-focused start-ups “to build and manage repair businesses in whatever way meets their goals”.

She said new repair-focused start-ups are launching every month across a range of categories and that repair, as a business sector, is growing at 6.5% per year. She added: “We are here to make repair profitable, scalable, and seamless with smart software.”