The IPO market may be slowly opening up again post its Facebook contraction, but not all startups in their later stages are jumping. Care.com, the online marketplace for people to find helper for everything from childcare and tutoring to housekeeping, today announced an E-Round of finance worth $50 million, which it will use to continue its growth strategy specifically outside of its home market of the U.S. The round was let by Institutional Venture Partners, with participation from existing investors Matrix Partners, NEA and Trinity Ventures.
This brings the total amount raised by the company up to $101 million, and comes on the heels of the company buying Berlin-based Betreut from the Samwer brothers, and launching the Care.com brand in the UK and Canada. The site, founded in 2006, now has 7 million users across 15 different countries, it says.
Care.com competes with a number of startups that focus on specific verticals: for example DogVacay for pet-sitting; or SittingAround for babysitting; or the very straightforward-named Housekeeper.com to find cleaners.
Care.com, however, is a different beast, covering all bases where people offering any of these services can connect with those looking for them. This is useful, in that often it might be one person offering a lot of different services, or a person looking to fill several jobs at once. Care.com links up both with sole traders and larger businesses and agencies that offer these services.
That many-sided approach, rather than focusing on a single vertical, is in fact the company’s modus operandi, according to Sheila Lirio Marcelo, founder and CEO of Care.com. ”It is…a validation of our multi-revenue business model and multi-service platform, as well as our track record of growth,” she said in a statement about the funding.
Sandy Miller, General Partner of IVP, will join the board as a result of the funding. “Sheila and the team at Care.com have done more than identify a growing global need; they’ve delivered on a strategy to help fill that need for millions of families,” she noted in a statement.
You might argue that this latest round led by IVP may end up being the last before Care.com does list. IVP notes that of the 300 companies in which it has invested — it focuses on later-stage investments — 91 have gone public. Others have been snapped up by biggies. The portfolio includes ArcSight (bought by HP), Buddy Media (Salesforce acquisition), ComScore (IPO), Concur Technologies (IPO), Dropbox (still private and independent!), HomeAway (IPO), Kayak (IPO), Netflix (IPO), and Zynga (IPO).
Founded in 2006, Care.com is the largest and fastest growing service used by families to find high-quality caregivers, providing a trusted place to easily connect, share caregiving experiences and get advice. The company addresses the unique lifecycle of care needs that each family goes through-child care, special needs care, tutoring and lessons, senior care, pet care, housekeeping and more. The service helps families find and select the best care available based on detailed profiles, background checks and references for...
With $4 billion of committed capital, Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) is a premier later-stage venture capital and growth equity firm in the United States. Founded in 1980, IVP has invested in over 300 companies, 93 of which have gone public. IVP is one of the top performing firms in the industry and has a 32-year IRR of 43.2%. IVP specializes in venture growth investments, industry rollups, founder liquidity transactions, and select public market investments. Since its inception, IVP investments...
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