London-based OpenDesk is a plywood furniture startup seeking to change the face of furniture making and design by offering open-sourced designs that can be manufactured locally and delivered flatpacked to consumers. The start-up says it plans to "use Local CNC's to do to IKEA what Airbnb did to hotels."

The company says its goal is to directly connect the consumer to the designers and the fabricators, streamlining the process to eliminate overhead costs such as inventory and storage, as well as offering shorter lead times with its furniture-on-demand approach.

Hub Westminister/OpenDesk

Here's how it works:

1) Designers upload their work, set the pricing for commercial and non-commercial use, and choose their license terms

2) Consumers can download designs for their own use or choose to work with a local fabricator from OpenDesk's global database

CUSTOM Housefish's Furniture Future Points to 3D Printing and CNC Housefish creates modular furniture with a manufacturing process that is a mix of old school hand crafting and modern technology, including CNC machining and 3D printing.

3) Professional fabricators with CNC machinery are granted commercial licenses to make the products -- tables, desks, chairs and storage units, set production prices and deal directly with consumers.

Kano/OpenDesk

According to the Guardian, OpenDesk has 50 product designs and works with approximately 200 fabricators in 32 countries. The company works with numerous U.S. makers including Denver, CO-based Housefish, which fabricates modular furniture pieces.

OpenDesk was founded in 2013 and has raised over €640,000 in investments and expected sales of €250,000 in the first half of 2015, the paper added.