Papier bet analog stationery could win online — and sales doubled by 2026

Digital-first stationery: personalized notebooks, diaries and notecards designed with up-and-coming British artists, sold online.

After studying history of art at Cambridge and working as a management consultant at Bain, Taymoor Atighetchi concluded stationery 'needed some disruption and had no real category leader' for modern consumers. He founded Papier in 2015 as a digital-first brand — personalize and buy stationery online — betting on the analog ritual behind the screen. Early on he saw a 'digital detox' forming among millennials.

The bet compounded in an unexpected direction: Gen Z, the most screen-native generation, grew to 35–40% of customers — for them stationery is a novelty, 'almost a new discovery', not nostalgia. Papier sells around 1,400 academic diaries a day in back-to-school season; in 2025 notecards grew 33% year on year and writing paper 23%, with US notecard sales more than triple the UK's. Design collaborations with up-and-coming British designers like Luke Edward Hall and Damson Madder keep the brand at the front of trend.

The bet aged counter-intuitively: the most online generation became the growth engine, buying paper as novelty rather than nostalgia.

AI anxiety turned into a tailwind — Atighetchi argues algorithm fatigue will accelerate demand for intentional, human creativity.

Staying 'tech-heavy' kept the economics modern while the product stayed analog: personalization, e-commerce and fast design collaborations.

A digital-native channel selling analog product hedges both ways: you get e-commerce economics while riding the counter-trend instead of fighting it.

As of April 24, 2026, Papier was moving into analog games — backgammon and chess sets slated for later in the year — after doubling sales between 2022 and 2025, passing 2.5 million customers globally, and watching US demand for its notecards outstrip the UK threefold.