Home services startups are gaining attention
Investors have been pouring money into upstart companies aiming to help home owners with maintaining and upgrading their properties.
In the past year, at least US$1.4 billion went to such home services startups according to Crunchbase analysis. Some are directly serving retail customers, some provide products to support contractors.
In one of the largest deals, ServiceTitan, which creates software for contractors in plumbing, electrical and other special areas to generate leads and close sales, closed a US$500 million round last month. The firm has raised over US$1 billion so far.
Other transactions include US275 million raised by Thumbtack, an app for finding and hiring local professionals, US$50 million raised by subscription plans provider Super and US$90 million raised by HomeX, which offers virtual support for home repair troubleshooting.
Home services market is estimated to be worth US$500 billion as homes are regularly in need of care and repair and few have the tools and skills to do it on their own.
Though not in the business of cutting-edge technology involving some of the hottest areas like big data, AI, IoT and 5G, many of these home services startups do have a technology spin in their solution offerings to provide something better, cheaper or something different from traditional players.
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