PARIS: ManoMano, a French online home improvement shop, announced on Tuesday that it had raised US$355 million in a funding round headed by investment firm Dragoneer, valuing the company at US$2.6 billion. Dragoneer, based in San Francisco, has already invested in well-known digital firms like Airbnb, Slack Technologies, and Spotify. Temasek, General Atlantic, Eurazeo, Bpifrance, Aglaé Ventures, Kismet Holding, and Armat Group are among the other stockholders who took part in the fundraising, according to ManoMano.
ManoMano’s co-founder Christian Raisson stated in a phone interview that the company had already achieved “unicorn” status – defined as a company valued at over $1 billion – through a prior US$125 million fundraising round last year.
Lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic fueled demand for do-it-yourself home improvement items, and the trend isn’t going away, according to Raisson, who added that there’s no evidence of the market becoming saturated.
ManoMano’s recent fundraising takes the firm’s total raised to US$725 million since its inception in 2013, according to the company. It did not reveal the financial conditions of its fundraisings or the structure of its shareholdings. In the home renovation market, ManoMano competes against huge holding companies like Adeo and Kingfisher, as well as e-commerce behemoth Amazon.
It claims that the fresh financing will enable it to more than double its workforce by hiring 1,000 workers by the end of 2022, as well as expand in Germany and the United Kingdom. The company now includes operations in Belgium, Italy, and Spain, with 50 million unique visitors per month across various platforms. (Mathieu Rosemain contributed reporting, and Peter Graff edited the piece.)/n
