An interior design start-up launched during COVID lockdown has been further backed with £15 million funding.
Cazoo and Zoopla founder Alex Chesterman, who participated in a £3m round into Lick Home last year, again joined the latest round of financing into the direct-to-consumer platform, which has capitalised on the surge in DIY and home refurbishments during COVID.
The round, led by OMERS Ventures with participation from existing investors Felix Capital and contributions from Magnus Rausing and Kathaka as well as Chesterman, will be used to expand its product offering, launch new sustainability initiatives and grow its community of home decorators across the globe.
Lick says it has grown a dedicated community of 185,000 decorators – purchasing paint, wallpaper and blinds – to achieve a $7 million revenue run-rate within the first eight months. It also offers a one-to-one video consultation service to customers.
Lick now wants to make its decorators’ official partners in Lick, with co-founders Lucas London and Sam Bradley inviting customers to join their latest funding round to raise an additional £1m via a crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs.
Scheduled to go live on Monday 7th June, the campaign has already seen huge interest with 4,000 members of Lick’s community pre-registered to invest.
“We’re really excited to be partnering with the OMERS Ventures and Felix Capital teams – both to expand our product offering and also inspire even more people to decorate, all around the world,” said London.
“At Lick we offer paint, wallpapers, blinds and decorating supplies, but what we’re really building is a people-powered decorating movement; and confidence in decorators of every level to transform their spaces, and make their homes their own.
“Already we’ve helped make over 30,000 houses feel like home, listened to our decorators and launched new categories and product extensions, built a superb 38-person strong team bringing in expertise from FarFetch and Charlotte Tilbury, and planted enough trees to cover over 72 football pitches and removed the equivalent of 122,504 plastic bottles from the ocean.
“In short, our curated offering and unique approach to content are bringing a fresh look to decorating.”
Chesterman’s used car marketplace Cazoo is worth billions after listing in the US a little over a year after launching.
“In the short time since its launch, Lick has completely shaken up this sector, by re-thinking every step of the customer journey from inspiration to decoration, for the modern digital-native consumer and professional decorator”, said OMERS Ventures Managing Partner Harry Briggs.
“We believe this team and this brand have what it takes to become global category leaders and help millions of people transform their homes.”