Home services marketplace UrbanYou acquires HomeHello to expand into Brisbane

Sydney-founded home services marketplace UrbanYou has announced the acquisition of HomeHello, an on-demand marketplace for customers seeking domestic cleaning services, for an undisclosed fee. UrbanYou will be leveraging HomeHello’s Brisbane presence to expand its footprint up north.

Founded by former Yahoo executives Elke Keeley and Noga Edelstein in 2014, the startup in July raised $1 million in funding from existing investor Microequities Venture Capital, with participation from angel investor Arun Nair.

The startup reported at the time that over 18,000 bookings had been completed through its platform, with over $3 million worth of services being sold. It added that 60 percent of monthly revenue is being driven by repeat clients, with growth coming after a re-focus on its core offerings.

The business originally launched as UrbanSource, offering users a variety of services, before securing $500,000 in funding and undergoing a rebrand last year that saw it streamline its offering to focus on gardening and cleaning services. Within that, users can select between options including spring clean or end of lease clean.

With today’s news UrbanYou stated it has now serviced over 30,000 bookings and generated $4 million in sales through the platform, thanks in part to its expansion into Melbourne.

Edelstein said the acquisition of HomeHello and its integration into the UrbanYou business will help accelerate this growth.

“HomeHello have successfully built a strong and loyal recurring business, and welcoming these users to UrbanYou, instantly doubles this sector of our business. And when combining our networks, UrbanYou boasts the largest network of top-quality service professionals available on-demand,” she said.

“When we looked at their business, there were obvious synergies that would enable us to quickly scale up across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Marketplaces are typically a winner takes-all and this acquisition enables us to step-up and cement our position as the biggest marketplace for household maintenance services, in a market worth $15 billion.”

Richard Lin, who cofounded HomeHello with Jason Pham in 2014, added, “We’re incredibly proud of everything the HomeHello team has built and achieved over the past three years and we are extremely confident in UrbanYou’s ability to continue our mission of providing quality home services to all Australians.”

Along with the acquisition, UrbanYou has also announced it is rolling out new features across its booking platform to further automate booking and payments, and integrate the system into the business operations of its service provider network.

Image: Elke Keeley and Noga Edelstein. Source: Supplied.