San Francisco, CA, Oct. 14, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BuildZoom today announced a $10.6 million Series A funding round led by Joe Lonsdale from Formation 8 with participation from Y Combinator and Peter Thiel of Founders Fund. The investment from Y Combinator represents one of their largest investments to date.
"Until BuildZoom, people haven't had a single source they could completely trust when it came time to remodel their home or build a new one," said David Petersen, CEO and co-founder of BuildZoom. "We're taking all the pain out of the process and dramatically improving outcomes for people in one of the largest sectors of the US economy.
BuildZoom's mission is to take the pain and ambiguity out of remodeling. To accomplish this, they have built the world's largest database of licensed contractors, which includes information on over 100 million projects that have been completed over the past decade.
"Using BuildZoom is like turning to your most trusted friend for guidance before starting a project," said Jiyan Wei, President and co-founder of BuildZoom. "Except your friend has analyzed ten years of remodeling activity, performed by millions of licensed contractors across the US before helping you."
Once BuildZoom has helped a person find the contractor they want to hire, they work with both parties to ensure things go smoothly, from start to finish.
"Our role doesn't end once a match has been made," said Wei. "These are complex transactions that play out over weeks and sometimes months. To fulfill our commitment to the consumer, we need to be involved throughout the process."
The additional capital will allow BuildZoom to expand their already talented engineering and data science team. Any interested candidates can learn more by visiting: https://www.buildzoom.com/careers
Performance to Date
Since it emerged from Y Combinator in 2013, BuildZoom has rapidly grown into a thriving marketplace that currently helps over 12 million annual users, achieve dramatically improved outcomes on over a billion dollars in construction projects. In 2015, BuildZoom grew 400% year over year.
Headquartered in San Francisco, BuildZoom has over 35 employees and is projected to double over the next year. Joe Lonsdale, Founder and General Partner at Formation 8, will join David Petersen and Jiyan Wei on BuildZoom's board of directors.
According to Lonsdale, who led the investment on behalf of Formation 8, "BuildZoom is one of my favorite teams, and we love their approach to making the contracting and remodeling industry work better. This is a huge part of our economy and David, Jiyan and team are using clever data science and an innovative platform to protect consumers, help contractors, and meaningfully improve one of the biggest markets in the world."
Additional investors in the round include Peter Thiel from Founder's Fund; and Y Combinator.
About BuildZoom
BuildZoom takes the pain out of remodeling and construction, from start to finish. By gathering and analyzing data on over 3.5 million licensed contractors and 100 million improvement projects, they are able to provide uniquely reliable advice to consumers at the outset of a project. Once BuildZoom helps a person find the contractor they want to hire, they work with both parties to ensure things go smoothly, from start to finish.
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, Radius, Oscar and Illumio.