ManoMano, all the accounts of French e-bricolage that becomes a unicorn
The French startup ManoMano closes a $ 355 million loan. Now the DIY platform has a 2.6 billion valuation and becomes a unicorn
France's ManoMano poised to conquer the DIY online market after the pandemic spurred interest in home chores.
With the completion of a $ 355 million Series F funding round, ManoMano, a DIY, gardening and home decor e-commerce company, has achieved a $ 2.6 billion valuation and unicorn status. This was announced by a note from the company which, it says, "will double its workforce by hiring 1000 new employees by the end of 2022".
“We want to confirm our position as the undisputed European leader in our online market segment. Our goal is to become the first platform for all DIY, gardening and home improvement projects, ”said Philippe de Chanville and Christian Raisson, co-founders and co-CEOs of ManoMano.
Faced with traditional players such as Point.P, Leroy-Merlin or Bricorama, ManoMano has bet on online sales in a sector that has yet to go digital, highlights Le Monde . In France, barely 10% of sales of drills or paint cans take place on the Internet, while the level of digitization of household and equipment businesses averages around 30%.
All the details.
WHAT IS MANOMANO
Founded in Paris in 2013 by Christian Raisson and Philippe de Chanville, ManoMano is managed by the company Colibri SAS, with a capital of € 88,370.88.
It is an e-commerce platform for DIY, DIY and gardening products.
As Techcrunch points out , although ManoMano has 7 million customers, sales of home and gardening items still mostly take place in brick- and-mortar stores. The startup is well aware that it's not just about having the best products at good prices. ManoMano works with consultants (or Manodvisor) so that experts can give advice whenever clients need advice. Like many fast-growing ecommerce companies, ManoMano operates on a market model, which means it doesn't own the inventory it sells. Instead, it connects the sellers to the buyers and takes a commission on each transaction.
Overall, clients initiated 2.3 million conversations with consultants in 2020. But thanks to this new round of funding, the company is now well capitalized to innovate on this front and differentiate itself from other e-commerce platforms.
HOW THE COMPANY DOES
In France, in particular, the company has already been profitable for a couple of years. In 2020 alone, the company's gross volume of merchandise doubled to € 1.2 billion ($ 1.42 billion at today's rate). This growth testifies to the euphoria for home improvement in the year of the pandemic, with consumers spending to upgrade their homes and apartments during lockdowns.
WHERE IT WORKS
In addition to France, the startup operates in Spain, Italy, Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom. The funds obtained will be used, the note reads, to "continue international expansion".
Italy has been one of the priority markets for the company since its inception in 2015, and is facing a phase of consolidation after earning 130 million euros last year.
ROUND LEADED BY THE AMERICAN DRAGONEER INVESTMENT GROUP
The round was led by a new investor, the US-based Dragoneer Investment Group, with a large holding of existing investors Temasek, General Atlantic , Eurazeo, Bpifrance, through its Large Venture funds, Aglaé Ventures, Kismet Holdings, and Armat Group.
FUNDING TO GROW IN B2B
In addition to selling to hobbyists, ManoMano also caters to the B2B market with ManoManoPro. It already works well in France with very small teams (1 to 5 employees) but the company intends to expand this offering to Spain and Italy.
The goal is to “accelerate the growth of the B2B market in Italy and Spain with the ManoManoPro platform”, continue its “technological innovation” focused on improving the customer and seller experience and develop its European logistics network through ManoFulfillment.
AND IN LOGISTICS
Furthermore ManoMano does not have its own warehouses and does not own any inventory. That's why ManoMano plans to recruit 1,000 people in the next 18 months and most of them will be technical profiles.
WHAT IS THE REFERENCE EUROPEAN MARKET WORTH
The goal now is to make ManoMano “a European brand” according to co-CEO Philippe de Chanville.
The company is entering a European market in the sector that is worth 400 billion euros, which however is still lagging behind on the online standstill, the note reads, "at 11% (in particular at 7% in Italy)" penetration, and achieved growth of + 100% and turnover of 1.2 billion euros in 2020.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/manomano-tutti-i-conti-delle-bricolage-francese-che-diventa-unicorno/ on Tue, 06 Jul 2021 10:23:37 +0000.