Wecasa raises $17.7 million for its home care and wellness marketplace

French startup Wecasa has raised a $17.7 million funding round (€15 million). Blisce is leading the funding round with existing investors Serena, ISAI and Frédéric Mazzella also participating. The company has been building a marketplace for home care and wellness.

Over the past few years, Wecasa has kept adding new verticals. The startup originally specialized in hairdressing at home. It then added massage, beauty treatments, housekeeping, babysitting and sports coaching.

While the company is mostly active in France, it expanded to London in April 2021. Up next, Wecasa expects to launch its service in a couple of new European markets as soon as next year.

When it comes to metrics, Wecasa expects to generate $23.6 million (€20 million) in revenue this year. That would represent a three-fold increase compared to 2020 revenue. There are 150,000 Wecasa customers and 5,000 registered professionals on the platform.

Like many marketplaces, finding more partners will be key to supporting the company’s growth. Wecasa expects to add another 3,000 professionals by the end of 2021 for instance. There are currently 50 people working for the company and the startup is hiring another 30 employees this year.

This isn’t the only marketplace focused on home care and wellness in France. When it comes to housekeeping, Wecasa competes with Helpling, O2, Shiva and others. When it comes to babysitting, Wecasa competes with Yoojo, Yoopies and others. Some other marketplaces also focus on one-off jobs, such as fixing something that is broken — examples include Lulu dans ma rue and Stootie.

Wecasa has been slowly adding new categories, which is a smart move as it’s easier to make sure you’re working with competent professionals if you don’t have a thousand different verticals. There’s also a huge market opportunity as a lot of recommendations for a baby-sitter or a housekeeper still happen offline — there will be room for multiple marketplaces. And Wecasa now seems to be well positioned to build a strong brand and service across multiple markets.

from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2U91Rsr