Frame Calculator was ahead of the curve. The company was founded in 2019, as 20 US states. began investigating possible bill repair rights. It delivered its first product, Framework 13, in 2021, a year before New York enacted its landmark (if flawed) Digital Fair Repair Act.
Today, the company sells its repairable laptops in 13 countries across North America and Europe, along with Taiwan. Still, the Framework has been deliberate — even cautious — about the increase. Its last major round was an $18 million Series A that closed in early 2022.
“When we closed a Series A round two years ago, we shared our fundraising strategy, which is to raise as few resources as possible and focus capital on effectively expanding the reach of our mission,” the company notes. “You can now see the results of that investment with Framework Laptop 16 in the hands of customers.”
On Tuesday, the company announced a follow-up — a $17 million Series A-1. “We’re a non-AI consumer company that successfully raised funding in 2024,” founder and CEO Nirav Patel tells TechCrunch, laughing.
There is, indeed, something strangely refreshing about a company that hasn’t incorporated some unrelated ChatGPT functionality into its stride. Instead, Framework remains focused on its core business: user-repairable and upgradeable laptops.
However, Patel is quick to note, “basically, we’re a consumer electronics company, not a laptop company.” This simple clarification highlights a key element of this fundraising round. While genetic AI may not be in the cards, there is certainly an expanded portfolio. In addition to “scaling the reach” of its current offerings, this new funding will be used to “expand into additional product categories.” Patel did not disclose details.
European company Fairphone, which operates with a similar philosophy of consumer access, recently expanded its own portfolio. In addition to smartphones, the company now offers repairable headphones and earphones. “We like what they’re doing,” Patel says of the sister company. “It’s obviously a brutally competitive category that they’re in and they’ve done very well in it.”
Part of the funding will be allocated to recruitment. Framework plans to fill a total of 10 roles in 2024, adding to a headcount that is currently just under 50. Despite that number, the company maintains a broad international reach, including the brand new Poland region.
“It’s all direct-to-consumer,” says Patel. “We managed our market directly. We don’t deal with distributors or channels or retail, and we have this very, very short pipeline from the warehouse to the consumer’s doorstep. This makes it operationally incredibly efficient. For the most part, we have a positive cash cycle, in the sense that we collect money from customers who buy our product before we have to pay suppliers, in many cases.”
The round was led by Spark Capital with participation from Buckley Ventures, Anzu Partners, Cooler Master and Pathbreaker Ventures. In addition to the $17 million, the company is opening $1 million in equity crowdfunding through $10,000 investments.
“It’s a bit of an experiment,” says Patel. “We’re bringing in 100 investors, and probably for the most part, the vast majority of them are not going to be professional investors. This may even be the only private company investment any of them have ever made. We’ll see what that looks like, having this 100-person community council.”
