We buy, build, and back businesses in the maker economy.
Yarn shops, kilns, pattern studios, letterpresses, and the kind of weird little business that gets discovered through three degrees of fiber-festival friendship.
Why we exist
We don’t buy companies to break them. We buy them to keep them going.
Private equity found the maker economy a few years back. The playbook hasn’t changed since they ran it on summer camps and dental practices: buy something beloved, squeeze the team, pump out the cash, move on. The brand survives. The soul does not.
CraftSpark is the alternative. We buy companies we want to keep, run by people who care where the company lands. We hold for the long term. We answer the phone. We’ve actually wound a center-pull ball.
What we do
Three prongs. One thesis.
We acquire maker-economy businesses.
No games just honest conversation about what is possible.
We build tools and spaces for makers.
Makers spend too much time running their businesses and not enough time making. We're building tools to give that time back, and exploring physical spaces in communities where local craft has thinned out.
We're exploring how to invest in this space — without becoming the thing we're against.
If you're a founder, operator, or potential partner interested in funding the maker economy without replicating the extractive playbook, get in touch. We don't have all the answers. We have strong opinions about what the answers shouldn't look like.
Portfolio
One in. More to come.
Acquired in 2026
Nordic Yarn
Recycled Italian cashmere, spun in Prato. Editorial knitting kits and small-batch yarns.
Visit nordicyarn.com
More to come. We’re patient. We only buy what we love.
For founders
Thinking about selling?
Most acquisition conversations start with a number. Ours start with a question: what do you want to be true about your company in five years?
We don’t need you to explain why your COGS spiked the year wool moved, or why your best customer is a 73-year-old in Vermont who orders the same colorway every six weeks and has opinions about your packaging. We’ve met her. She’s right.
Here’s how we work:
We move at human speed.
No 30-day diligence sprints.
We don't strip teams.
We're buying the people as much as the brand.
We're transparent about price and structure.
No games.
We're not the right buyer for everyone.
If you want maximum exit and a clean handoff, we'll tell you, then point you somewhere better.
For investors
Curious about the space?
We’re exploring ways to fund the maker economy that don’t involve the usual extractive playbook. Early thinking. If you’re a partner, operator, or LP who finds this interesting — and finds the existing options frustrating — we’d love to compare notes.
Start a ConversationContact
Get in touch.
We read everything. We answer most things when we're not knitting, sewing, crafting things.
CraftSpark Ventures
hello@craftsparkventures.com