Investor and Entrepreneur, Avin Rabheru’s new Venture, Housekeep, raises $1m investment
UKBAA Investor member and entrepreneur, Avin Rabheru’s, latest venture Housekeep.com, has raised $1m investment, just three months after launch. Investors include some of the UK’s most experienced technology angels and venture capitalists, led by Pentland Group and includes angel investors such as John Hewett, the CEO of Smedvig Capital; Dharmash Mistry, non-executive director of Hargreaves Lansdown and Dixons; Paul Hewett, non-executive director of Tesco Bank; and, the architect behind Addison Lee’s operation and technology.
Housekeep, a booking platform for professional home cleaners, is disrupting the £4 billion home cleaning market, by helping consumers to drastically cut the time and effort involved in finding, managing and paying a trusted cleaner.
The business is using technology to make the process simple, by offering online booking, fixed prices and automated payments. However, the service is still very personal, with their customer services team tailoring the service to each client during an ‘on-boarding call’ and the actual cleaning delivered by trained, vetted and insured ‘Housekeepers’.
Unlike competing platforms, which act as an introductory service between cleaners and customers, Housekeep provide a fully-managed service to ensure that the experience is quick and easy for customers.
The business was founded by Avin Rabheru, who is an angel investor in over 20 early stage businesses, such as Kabbee and Crowdcube. Avin was also a venture capital investor at Smedvig Capital – the firm behind Streetcar and Lovespace – and has amassed a wealth of knowledge and experience about what it takes for a startup to succeed.
Avin Rabheru, CEO and Founder of Housekeep comments:
“The home cleaning industry is very antiquated, with no provider offering both strong customer service and top quality cleaning.
We took time to understand exactly what customers want and, to be totally sure, I’ve cleaned nearly 100 homes myself in the ‘housekeeper’ role! That experience was incredibly valuable and has guided how we recruit, train and supervise our housekeepers.
We have had fantastic customer feedback so far, but know that scaling this high quality will be the key to building a great business. We are delighted to have such a strong investor group involved and they know we will be drawing on their expertise to help us grow the business rapidly.”
The neat concept has attracted the attention of some of the UK’s best-known investors. The lead investor is Pentland Group, the name behind successful consumer brands such as Hunter and JD Sports. Also joining the funding round are successful tech entrepreneurs Brett Akker and Justin Peters, the founders of Streetcar and Kabbee.
Brett Akker, founder of Streetcar (sold to Zipcar for $50m) said:
“Housekeep is tackling a big market that is ripe for disruption and is already achieving impressive consumer traction. I am looking forward to working with the team to grow the business even faster in the coming years”
Stephen Rubin, Chairman of Pentland Group adds:
“We back people who dedicate their professional lives to creating market-leading, values-led brands that delight their customers and create value for their shareholders. We were attracted to Housekeep’s focus on service, operational excellence and people, and believe this dedication will stand the business in very good stead.”
