Homejoy, a San Francisco-based cleaning company, has raised $38 million in funding in a round led by Google Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, and PayPal co-founder Max Levchin. The latest funding adds to the $40 million that the company has already raised since its inception a year ago. The investors are undoubtedly expecting significant returns on their investments. Adora Cheung, CEO and co-founder of Homejoy along with her younger brother Aaron, stated that while it was more funding than she anticipated, they decided to take the opportunity due to the right partners approaching them.
House Cleaning Startup Homejoy Raises $38 Million
San Francisco-based Homejoy today announced the close of a $38 million funding round, led by Google Ventures, Redpoint Ventures and PayPal cofounder Max Levchin. It brings their total funds raised to just under $40 million – a tidy sum for a year-old cleaning company.
Homejoy, a graduate of the Y-Combinator incubator, is currently providing affordable cleaning services in 31 cities, with a charge of $20 per hour. The company ensures bonded and insured cleanings and offers a free re-clean if customers are unsatisfied. Although the profit margins are narrow due to paying cleaners around $12 an hour, the company prioritizes fair wages and aims to use its earnings to further expand its platform. According to Cheung, the company’s core mission is to bring happiness to homes, which requires substantial capital for widespread reach.
Homejoy to be successful
In order for Homejoy to be successful, they must rapidly expand and extend their reach to suburban areas, where there is significant demand according to Cheung. Additionally, they aim to broaden their services to become the go-to option for home repairs. “Whether it’s repairing a toilet or painting walls, we want to be the preferred source,” Cheung explained. “Our goal is not just to be a prominent company in North America – we aspire to be a leading global company.”
It’s a practical approach to the more luxurious on-demand services such as Uber, at a price that could make it widely available. Competitors include Handybook, which secured $10 million in funding in October, as well as platforms like MerryMaids.com and Care.com. “[At Redpoint] we strongly believe that home services represent a significant untapped market for online scheduling and delivery,” stated Geoff Yang, founding partner of Redpoint Ventures, in a press release.
The company has established its own 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the Homejoy Foundation, with the aim of improving the living environments of veterans and military families through the provision of cleaning services and a portion of its earnings. Cheung declined to reveal the exact number of homes cleaned by Homejoy so far but did mention that the figures have been consistently increasing on a monthly basis since the company’s launch in July 2012.
House Cleaning Startup Homejoy Raises $38 Million Images
History
Homejoy, a company that offered on-demand home cleaning services, was established in 2010 by Adora and Aaron Cheung. Adora served as the CEO while Aaron took on the role of VP of Growth. The company was initially called Pathjoy before it was rebranded as Homejoy. Adora Cheung, one of the co-founders, personally did the first few cleaning jobs to ensure customer satisfaction. She continued to work at least one cleaning job each month until late 2013. This hands-on approach helped Homejoy to understand its customers’ needs and provide high-quality services, which ultimately led to their success. However, despite their early success, Homejoy eventually had to shut down due to various legal challenges and operational issues.