San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) October 06, 2014 -- BuildZoom, the intelligent marketplace for remodeling and construction services, announced today that it raised $2.15 Million in Series Seed funding. The round was led by Formation 8, and included investments from several additional investors. The company has now raised two significant rounds of funding since going through the winter 2013 batch at Y Combinator.
“We give homeowners the most comprehensive data about all the home improvement contractors operating in their area,” said Jiyan Wei, co-founder of BuildZoom. “By putting the homeowner back in the driver seat, we are holding the contractor accountable and helping people get better results from their remodeling and construction projects.”
To fulfill this mission, BuildZoom has collected data and analysis on more than 3.5 million licensed contractors along with the building permits for over 50 million construction projects nationwide. Homeowners can easily find the contractor best suited for their project, view a comprehensive profile that includes their work history, project photos, and customer reviews, and then hire them right on the site.
Over the past year, BuildZoom has grown its marketplace to serve more than 650,000 unique users each month. “We’ve grown like crazy in the last year,” said David Petersen, Buildzoom co-founder. “This new funding will make it easier for us to support all those users and give them even better tools for finding great contractors to work on their homes.”
According to Drew Oetting from Formation 8, "Remodeling and construction is an enormous market yet the process can be inconsistent and opaque. BuildZoom is giving people the data they need to make better decisions, and increasing collaboration and transparency through the process. We’re excited to see BuildZoom reshape its industry."
Since its last round of funding, BuildZoom has launched a series of features to make construction projects easier for homeowners. Starting with a system that algorithmically scores the reliability of every licensed contractor in the US, they’ve since added maps to show all the remodeling projects any contractor has done, a home improvement calculator to help homeowners estimate project costs, and workflow tools to let homeowners actually book a complete remodeling job through the web application.
BuildZoom plans to use the money to invest in data science, engineering and customer support operations in their San Francisco office. According to Petersen, “Remodeling shouldn’t be confusing and scary; it should be exciting and gratifying.”
About BuildZoom
BuildZoom is the intelligent marketplace for remodeling and construction services. The company simplifies the process of selecting a home improvement contractor and improving the outcomes of remodeling and construction projects. By gathering and analyzing information on 3.5 million licensed contractors and 50 million improvement projects, the company has brought new levels of transparency and accountability to a notoriously difficult industry. Based out of San Francisco, BuildZoom’s investors include Formation 8, Y Combinator, Streamlined Ventures, Goldcrest Investments, Hydrazine Capital, Signatures Capital, DV Playground, Pankaj Shah and several additional angel investors. To learn more, visit http://www.buildzoom.com.
About Formation 8
Formation 8 is a leading Silicon Valley technology investment firm, based in San Francisco, California. We invest in entrepreneurs who seek to transform the most important global industries by solving hard problems with technology solutions. We work with the best technologists and designers to help build and scale disruptive businesses. Our portfolio includes flagship companies such as Oculus, RelateIQ, Wish and Illumio. Our team members in Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai and Singapore work on behalf of our portfolio companies to help enable game-changing partnerships. Please see http://www.formation8.com/resources for more information.
Jiyan Wei, BuildZoom, http://www.buildzoom.com, +1 (310) 569-1991, [email protected]
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