A daily newsletter summarizing recent activity & interesting start-ups globally
RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – HOME IMPROVEMENTS
- Houzz, a content-driven commerce, and services company raised $400M in Series E round from Iconiq Capital, Sequoia, Zeev Ventures and GGV. Link
- Casper, an internet-first mattress brand raised $170M in Series C funding round from Kevin Spacey, 50 Cent, Carmelo Anthony, Kyrie Irving and Target. Link
- iKongjian, an O2O home renovation service platform raised a $31M in Series C funding round from the Gome Holdings Group. Link
- Monoqi, a private shopping club for handpicked contemporary design raised $17.12M funding from Al Jazeera Al Hadina. Link
- Youzhu, an online platform for home improvements raised $14M in Series B funding from China Equity Group, Forebright Capital, Qingdao Morning Capital, and chinacopower.com. Link
- Ehomy, an online private label brand for custom made furniture raised $11M in Series B funding from undisclosed investors. Link
- Interior Define, an online furniture brand raised $8M in Series A funding from Chicago investors Breakout Capital, Pritzker Group Venture Capital and Listen Ventures. Link
- Buster + Punch, an online private label brand of home decor products raised $3.77M in Series A funding from Mobeus Equity Partners. Link
- Clippings, an online curated marketplace for furniture & homeware raised $3.62M in Series A funding from C4 Ventures. Link
- Travauxlib, an online home renovation booking platform raised $1.9M in seed funding from Xavier Niel, Breega Capital and Bpifrance. Link
- IAC has agreed to acquire Angie’s List for USD $500M. The merger is expected to close by the last quarter of 2017, after which Angie’s List will merge with HomeAdvisor. Link
- Deny Designs, an online custom-made home furnishings brand got acquired by Leaf Group for USD $12M in a cash and stock deal. Link
- ICS Corp. has acquired an undisclosed majority stake in Renowala, an online home services marketplace. Link
- Greycork, a $1M funded private label furniture brand has shut down its operations. Link
- Urban Ladder, an online private label brand of furniture and home decor has shut down three of its warehouses in Bangalore to cut costs and speed up delivery. Link
SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND
Miaodj (2016, Suzhou, $6M) – Online platform for complete home remodeling services.
Home Made Luxe (2016, Houston) – Online subscription store for DIY home decor products.
LEADER BOARD – HOME IMPROVEMENTS
B2C Commerce – Horizontal
Wayfair (2002, Boston, IPO) – Online retailer of home furnishings. Went IPO in 2014.
WestWing (2011, Munich, $212M) – Online shopping club for home furniture and accessories. Backed by Summit Partners and Rocket Internet.
Home24 (2009, Berlin, $173M) – Online furniture marketplace. Backed by Baillie Gifford and Rocket Internet.
Pepperfry (2011, Mumbai, $160M) – Managed marketplace for furniture & home decor products. Backed by GS & NVP.
UrbanLadder (2012, Bangalore, $92M) – Online private label furniture & home decor brand. Backed by TR Capital & Steadview Capital.
Made (2010, London, $73M) – Made-to-order designer furniture company. Backed by Partech Ventures & Level Equity.
B2C Commerce – Furniture
Kumanju (2008, Guangzhou, $24M) – Online private label brand for children furniture. Backed by Tiantu Capital.
HomeMe (2011, Moscow, $5M) – Online retailer of furniture and some household accessories. Backed by AddVenture, ABRT, Mangrove Capital Partners, and Guard Capital.
Mjju (2015, Jinhua, $2M) – Online marketplace for home furniture.
B2C Commerce – Home Decor
Framebridge (2014, Washington D.C., $20.5M) – Online platform for custom picture and art frames. Backed by NEA, Revolution, and Swan & Legend Venture Partners.
Evim (2010, Istanbul, $5M) – Online membership-based private shopping site for home decor and accessories. Backed by 212, EBRD, and Simile Venture.
Lux (2012, Seattle, $3.5M) – Mobile shopping app for home accessories and gifts. Backed by IDG and Frees Fund.
B2C Commerce – Home Textiles
Umanto (2011, Beijing, $10M) – Online marketplace for home textiles. Backed by ZhenFund, SIG China, and Ventech.
Urbanara (2010, Berlin, $8M) – Online brand for homewares and home textiles. Backed by Blumberg Capital.
B2C Commerce – Mattress
Casper (2014, NYC, $240M) – An internet first mattress company. Backed by NEA & Lerer Hippeau Ventures.
SimbaSleep (2015, London, $22.5M) – A direct-to-consumer private label mattress brand. Backed by Henderson, JamJar Investments, Numis Securities, The Garage Soho, Spark Venture Management and Rishi Passi.
B2C Commerce – Kitchen Supplies
MightyNest (2008, Evanston, $685k) – Online marketplace selling toxin-free kitchen supplies and other home products. Backed by FireStarter Fund and Math Venture Partners.
B2C Commerce – Hardware
American Blinds (1993, Livonia, $26.5M, Acq.) – Online retailer of custom window treatments and wall coverings. Acquired by Blinds in 2010.
ManoMano (2013, Paris, $15M) – Online marketplace for DIY hardware tools and gardening products. Backed by Partech Ventures, CM-CIC Capital Prive, and Piton Capital.
BathEmpire (2009, Coventry, $13M) – Online retailer of bathroom furniture and accessories. Backed by Living Bridge.
B2C Commerce – Garden Supplies
Brico Prive (2012, Toulouse, $3M) – Flash Sales website for DIY, gardening, and home improvement products. Backed by Ardian.
Second Hand
Chairish (2013, SF, $15M) – Online marketplace for used furniture. Backed by O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, and Azure Capital Partners.
AptDeco (2013, NYC, $2.5M) – Online peer-to-peer marketplace for pre-owned furniture. Backed by YC, Gabriel Investments, and 645 Ventures.
Rental
Furlenco (2011, Bangalore, $21M) – Online furniture rental platform. Backed by Lightbox Ventures.
RentoMojo (2014, Bangalore, $7M) – Online portal to rent furniture. Backed by Accel and IDG.
Services – Horizontal
Porch (2012, Seattle, $100M) – Online listings platform that connects homeowners and renters with the home service professionals. Backed by Valor Equity Partners.
Duocai360 (2015, Beijing, $36M) – O2O home improvement services company. Backed by Sinovation Ventures.
RatedPeople (2005, London, $14.5M) – Online marketplace for home improvement services
Services – Interior Design
Laurel&Wolf (2014, LA, $25.5M) – Online interior designer marketplace based on the reverse auction model. Backed by Benchmark & CRV.
Homepolish (2012, NYC, $17M) – Online platform for on-demand interior designers.
Havenly (2013, Denver, $13M) – Online interior design service provider with its own fleet of designers. Backed by Binary Capital and Foundry Group.
Services – Painting
PaintZen (2013, NYC, $12M) – Online platform for booking and scheduling painting services for home and office. Backed by Bullpen Capital.
Commerce & Services
Houzz (2009, Palo Alto, $614M) – Online platform for home remodeling and design. Backed by Sequoia, GGV & NEA.
Community
Opendesk (2013, London, $584.12k) – Global network of designers and makers encouraging open source furniture making process. Backed by Wayra and Innovate UK.
Enablers
Outward (2012, San Jose, $12M) – Online product visualization tool. Backed by Merus Capital.
Kujiale (2014, Hangzhou, $12M) – Online tech-driven platform to design sketches and get related services. Backed by GGV, IDG, Hearst Communications, Matrix Partners China and Yunqi Partners.
Project Decor (2011, NYC, $7M) – Online platform providing mood boards for DIY users with home furnishings marketplace. Backed by LaunchCapital.
Modelo (2014, Cambridge, $1M) – Project Management Tool for architects and interior designers. Backed by ZhenFund.
Leaderboard includes all the top funded, IPO and successfully running bootstrapped companies along with their location, founding year and funding amount.
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