PipeDreams, a tech-enabled home services provider, secured another $25.5M in Series A funding led by Canvas Ventures and Plural, bringing its total equity funding to $39M.
Angel investors include Tony Xu, the founder of DoorDash; Thomas Layton, the founder of CitySearch, former CEO of OpenTable, and Chairman of UpWork; and Allison Pickens, former COO at Gainsight. PipeDreams’s mission is to become the most reputable home service provider in every market nationwide.
“The rise of vertical SaaS has been a boon for many service industries, but in talking to owners and consumers we found that a software layer alone doesn’t go deep enough to streamline operations or deliver reliable service for customers,” said Dan Laufer, CEO and founder of PipeDreams, who previously led growth and product marketing at Nextdoor.
“I’ve seen the power of technology to connect local communities first hand. We built PipeDreams to meet and elevate expectations with an end-to-end approach that gets the right person to the right job, ensures that person has upward mobility, and offers opportunities for business owners to scale their visions and brands.”
PipeDreams is a vertically integrated home services provider whose technology layer improves experiences for technicians and customers alike — delivering 5 stars on 91% of customer reviews. It acquires leading businesses in local markets, employs all its tradespeople, and integrates its proprietary technology stack to improve their earnings, productivity, and quality of life while continuing to deliver great services for customers.
PipeDreams’s AI platform matches workers’ skill sets to projects and optimizes job routes and scheduling as well as automates inventory management. With PipeDreams, technicians earn 30% more on average. PipeDreams’s technology layer uses automation, digitization and improved customer/technician experience to drive 100% growth out of an existing business in 24 months.
The company recently brought on Darren Merritt, the former VP of Engineering at ServiceTitan, as CPO. “I’ve spent much of my career supporting small business owners and skilled tradesmen, and while digitization has provided many advantages, I’ve long thought that verticalized solutions that integrate software and service are the way of the future,” Merritt said. “I’m thrilled to be bringing this vision to reality at PipeDreams.”
“PipeDreams’ application of technology — injecting it into every aspect of the business, instead of at the surface — is proving transformative not only for their teams but for their customers,” said Mike Ghaffary, General Partner at Canvas Ventures. “They’re giving a generation of owners liquidity, while growing their legacy and teams, doubling organic growth within a couple years, and creating loyal happy customers. We’re proud to support them on this journey.”
While technology has disrupted countless industries, home services still depend on the hands-on performance of skilled local technicians and coordination of schedules. Over the past two decades, intermediaries have emerged to make searching and scheduling easier for consumers, but these aggregated solutions tend to be a patchwork of providers and promises that lead to inconsistent and frustrating consumer experiences that prevent businesses from building deeper loyalty.
Yet with aging housing stock, demand for plumbing and HVAC services continues to grow at a 5.8% compound annual growth rate. This is compounded by a critical labor shortfall as tradesmen and business owners retire, and the industry continues to lag in attracting diverse talent (less than 4% of plumbers are women).
PipeDreams is working to make the trades more accessible to emerging talent by offering data-driven training programs for both new and existing employees. It provides a defined career and earnings trajectory, frequent opportunities for upskilling, and insights that help plumbers and technicians stay ahead of industry trends.
PipeDreams companies operate in the San Francisco Bay Area; the California Central Coast; Southern California; Tucson, Arizona; Denver, Colorado; and McAllen, Texas. They will expand to more locations in the coming year.
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