Vancouver based technology company BuildDirect has big plans. It wants to create a simpler home improvement industry with its Home Marketplace, a community-based tech platform that creates a one-stop solution connecting homeowners and subcontractors with product manufacturers, designers, trades and shippers. Even more impressive is the fact that it may actually achieve that goal, now that it’s received $50 million in financing from such investors as Mohr Davidow Ventures, OMERS Ventures and BMO Asset Management.
“This commitment from investors is a strong signal for the support and belief in BuildDirect’s unique approach to technology, data analytics, logistics and our ability to rebuild a broken home improvement industry,” says BuildDirect’s CEO and co-founder Jeff Booth.
BuildDirect plans to use the massive amount of funding to expand its Home Marketplace, which, as Booth explains, will allow BuildDirect to accelerate the change it’s bringing to the home improvement industry. The company plans to continue scaling up at a breakneck pace in order to meet the increasing demand of sellers seeking a wider access to homeowners.
In addition to the Home Marketplace, BuildDirect also provides its vendors with forecasting and analytic software and service, so that sellers can meet demands as they rise.
“Home improvement is a half-trillion dollar industry and is severely fragmented and inefficient,” said a statement from Katherine Barr, a General Partner of Mohr Davidow Ventures. “This financing underscores the speed at which old-world industries are breaking down and platform companies that leverage cutting-edge technology and data analytics, like BuildDirect, are putting the power in the hands of both the supply and demand side.”
She has a point. The U.S. home improvement industry is worth about $57.2 billion, so it should come as no surprise that such an innovative company could net so much funding. An expanded Home Marketplace essentially means buyers will be able to get large, heavyweight items to their project sites as easily as they could get a pizza delivered there.
If successful, BuildDirect’s plans will improve the home improvement industry.