Nomadi — Sustainable Baby Goods Subscriptions Powered by circuly

Nomadi is a Berlin-based startup founded in 2021 by Kristina and Manuel Heinemann. Built as a rental platform for children’s goods, Nomadi aims to “fundamentally change purchase and usage behavior for baby and children’s products.” Rooted in the sharing economy, the company provides cost-efficient, space-saving alternatives to traditional ownership by offering high-quality, vetted children’s products on a monthly rental basis. Their mission motto, “Keep things simple”, reflects an operational philosophy of reducing clutter, empowering minimalism, and promoting sustainability.

Business Model

Nomadi operates on a baby goods-as-a-service model tailored to parents of young children. Instead of purchasing kids's & baby goods, which are often used only briefly, they offer from a curated collection of toys, furniture, strollers, and mobility products. After use, items are returned, refurbished, and recirculated, promoting sustainability and affordability or the rented products can be bought out by the parents if they wish.

How the Model Works

Nomadi offers flexible rental terms (3, 6, or 12 months) for a variety of children’s products, with options to:

• Extend: Keep the product for another term.
• Cancel & Return: Send it back for refurbishment.
• Buyout: Own the product permanently, with all rental payments credited towards the purchase price.

Customers can also mix and match combining multiple products, rental terms, and even outright purchases in one order. Whether a family needs a stroller, a set of toys, and a piece of nursery furniture, everything is delivered together under one subscription experience.

Operations Where circuly Supports Nomadi

circuly is the subscription management system behind Nomadi, automating the core infrastructure needed to run a subscription-based business model for physical products. Out-of-the-box, circuly handles subscription management, recurring billing and invoicing, asset tracking, product lifecycle management, return management, a customer self-service portal, transactional communication, and fraud prevention through credit checks — allowing Nomadi’s team to focus on growth rather than manual admin.

“circuly makes rental and subscription commerce easy and scalable. Their constant feature improvements, responsiveness to feedback, and automation of complex processes allow us to run a challenging business model as smoothly as standard e-commerce.” — ★★★★★ | Manuel Heinemann, founder of Nomadi | G2 Review

Beyond these essentials, Nomadi uses circuly to power several core business functions that directly impact both operations and customer experience:

1. Mixed Basket Logic for Add-ons and Insurance

Through circuly’s white-label checkout, Nomadi can offer insurance (“Nomadi Care”) alongside rental products in a single order. Customers can add protection against theft, vandalism, or damage during checkout without a separate transaction — streamlining upsells and ensuring coverage is tied to the product from day one.

2. Referral Program Built into the Customer Portal

Nomadi’s “Refer a Friend” program runs on circuly’s native referral feature. Each customer has a unique referral code stored in their portal. When a referred friend places a successful order, the original customer automatically receives a reward credit in circuly, which is applied to their next recurring payment. This fully automated flow turns referrals into a predictable, low-cost acquisition channel.

3. Automated Buyouts with Lifecycle Updates

For customers who decide to keep their rented products, circuly enables end-to-end for subscription products:

• Automatic buyout price calculation (based on the original product price minus rental fees already paid)
• Instant payment processing via the stored payment method
• Asset lifecycle update in the backend, marking the item as “Bought Out” for accurate inventory and financial reporting

This ensures smooth customer experience and clean operational handover of the asset from rental stock to sold goods.

4. Renewal & Cancellation Management in Line with EU Law

circuly tracks start and end dates for every subscription. Weeks before expiry, customers automatically receive an email prompting them to:

• Cancel & return
• Buyout
• Continue renting

If no action is taken, the subscription is auto-extended in compliance with German and EU subscription extension laws. This keeps Nomadi legally compliant while maintaining retention rates.

If the customer wishes to terminate their subscription and return the product, they simply log into their self-service portal and submit a cancellation which auto triggers the generation of a return label that the customer case use to send the product back. In case the customer does not return the product in the return window specified by Nomadi, the subscription is reactivated and recurring payments continue to charge until the customer makes the cancellation again & successfully returns the product.

5. Delivery Date Selection

In circuly’s checkout flow, Nomadi customers can select a future delivery date that suits their plans. This flexibility increases conversion and allows Nomadi to better plan logistics.

Strategic Impact:
By embedding these business functions directly into circuly, Nomadi eliminates manual steps in high-impact processes like insurance add-ons, referrals, buyouts, and renewals. This not only reduces operational cost but also improves customer satisfaction, retention, and asset utilisation, all critical drivers for profitability in a physical product subscription model.

Conclusion

Nomadi’s model proves that subscription businesses for physical products can be both profitable and sustainable — if the right operational backbone is in place. By combining flexible rental terms, automated renewals, and a circular asset strategy, Nomadi keeps its products in use longer, customers more engaged, and operations lean.

circuly sits at the center of this system — not only automating subscription billing and asset tracking but also enabling Nomadi to offer value-added features like insurance, buyouts, referral programs, and legal compliance for subscription extensions.

As more consumer durable brands explore subscription models, Nomadi’s example shows that success isn’t just about offering the right product — it’s about building the right operational engine behind it. And with circuly powering that engine, businesses can scale confidently while keeping control over every stage of the product lifecycle.