Participated · Series C · Jan 2020

Porch operates a marketplace that connects homeowners with home-services professionals for improvement and moving-related projects. The company has formed partnerships with platforms including Facebook, eBay, Overstock and Streem to extend its reach. Porch has grown through acquisitions — buying Serviz (appliance repair and home services), Kandela (a 100-person Los Angeles company focused on move-related installations), and HireAHelper (a moving marketplace that helps about 250,000 people move per year). The company previously shrank headcount from 500 to 250 while repairing the business, and later reported headcount hit 875 in August following acquisitions. CEO Matt Ehrlichman said the new funding will help Porch push toward profitability and fund operations. The business resumed growth after emerging from a two-year quiet period in April 2018. Porch is a Seattle-based, data-driven platform that helps homeowners find local professionals for home improvement and repair projects. The company has expanded from neighborhood project data into mobile tools and a mobile booking service that lets homeowners hire pros for a set price through its apps. Porch reports about 3.2 million professionals on its service, including 200,000 with verified licenses, and data for over 130 million projects; it employs over 300 people. The company says it will use the new funding to speed its nationwide rollout, scale infrastructure, and launch multiple new products in 2015. Porch emphasizes a careful vetting process for professionals, which it describes as relatively slow and something it wants to get right. With this round, Porch has now raised roughly $100 million since launch. Porch operates a data-driven home network that connects homeowners with home improvement professionals, offers project inspiration, and lets owners manage their home improvement history. The company aggregates data on approximately 1.5 million professionals and over 120 million projects, and reports more than 100 exclusive data partnerships and thousands of additional partnerships. Porch has added features such as Verified Licenses (over 200,000 licensed professionals) and Verified Reviews to increase homeowner trust, and launched the Porch Home Report through realtor.com. The company also announced Inspiration and Manage Your Home features that surface project photos, actual costs, and the ability for homeowners to claim and tell their home’s history. Porch has grown rapidly in its first year—expanding to over 200 employees and roughly 30,000 square feet of office space—and established a strategic partnership with Lowe’s with presence in all 1,720 U.S. Lowe’s stores. Moving forward, Porch plans to expand beyond home improvement to deliver a broader “home network” of products and services over the coming year. Porch.com operates an online site focused on home improvement and remodeling information. The platform lets users view home improvement and remodeling projects completed by their neighbors and helps recommend and connect homeowners with local contractors and professionals. Porch has operations and one of its founders in San Diego. The company announced a strategic partnership with Lowe's in which Lowe's will run a retail promotion to introduce Porch to customers. The promotion is set to begin in 139 Lowe's stores in North and South Carolina and in Seattle. As part of the deal, Lowe's is making an undisclosed strategic investment in Porch. Porch is a Pinterest-like platform for home design and improvement that connects homeowners with professionals who can execute projects. The site lets users view neighbors' projects, see actual project costs, and choose professionals based on friend endorsements and work history. According to the article, Porch has aggregated data on 60 million home improvement projects with 600,000 photos and lists over 1.4 million professionals on its platform. The company is still private and plans to launch later in the year, with early access available via its site. Porch was founded by data, marketplace, and consumer acquisition entrepreneurs including CEO Matt Ehrlichman, with team members from Google, Microsoft, Expedia and others. The article frames the opportunity against a roughly $500 billion annual residential construction and home improvement market and notes competitors such as Houzz and Zillow's Digs.