#Houzz valuation software
#Houzz valuation series

Houzz’s online and app service lists over 1.5 million home improvement professionals in over 65 categories, including over 200,000 designers.įounded in 2009 by Mr. Rotenberg, the acquisition will allow IvyMark to reach a broader customer base.

#Houzz valuation series

We were heads down focusing on building IvyMark and planned to raise our Series A,” she said. “We actually never thought about getting acquired. Rotenberg said the acquisition came as a surprise. In an email interview with Calcalist Tuesday, Ms. IvyMark raised $2.9 million in a seed funding round from Disruptive Technologies Venture Capital, Pitango Venture Capital and San Francisco-headquartered venture capital firm NFX. Certainly, responding directly to designers’ concerns, as it has done recently, is a promising place to begin.IvyMark founders Lee A.

Perhaps this acquisition of IvyMark is Houzz’s best chance yet to show many in the industry that it truly does wish to be partners. It is easy to understand how Houzz’s massive scale and some of its more aggressive sales tactics have caused some to fear its place in the design industry landscape. There is work still to do for Houzz on that front.” Providing a tool like Ivy and making it even more powerful for designers is important to Houzz because it wants designers to truly see Houzz as a source of support and growth, which has always been part of their mission. When asked why Houzz wanted to acquire Ivy, they wrote, “Houzz knows it needs to do more to support designers. IvyMark’s co-founders were also eager to address the concerns that some of their users had regarding the sale to Houzz. Our goal is to help you grow your business and become more profitable by streamlining your operations.”

Not in emails, not in phone calls, and not in ads. Cohen responded, “Now I’d like to address the concern that Houzz will use the designers’ client information in Ivy proposals/invoices/POs to market similar products to their clients.

#Houzz valuation software

We hope that this, in addition to our partnership with Ivy, will help demonstrate our commitment to the needs of the trade.”īecause part of what Houzz purchased from IvyMark was specific client and project information that designers had entered into IvyMark’s software program, there were concerns that this information would be used to target or sell to designers’ clients directly. As a result, we’re making a change to the way photos are displayed and hiding the tags whenever a designer’s photos are displayed to homeowners in their local area. Houzz co-founder and president Alon Cohen responded to this issue last week, saying, “We hear you on the tags that are displayed on photos. Some feel the items shown are often a less-expensive version of what was actually used in their project or that this technology competes against them and their service. Many designers are dismayed by the use of their photographs for this purpose. As a result, we’re making a change to the way photos are displayed and hiding the tags whenever a designer’s photos are displayed to homeowners in their local area.” -Alon Cohen, president and co-founder of Houzz We hear you on the tags that are displayed on photos. When a visitor to the site scrolls over the tag, an array of sofas available for purchase are shown below the image. Once a matching sofa, for example, is identified, a tag is placed on that item within the image. It can scan an image of a room setting and identify products that are similar to those in Houzz’s database of merchandise. Boasting more than 10 million products available for sale from more than 20,000 sellers, it often uses images originally supplied by designers and architects to promote their work, to help market and sell products to consumers.Īt the center of much of the anxiety is a technology that Houzz created called Visual Match. Once more of a Pinterest-like site, where consumers would scroll through inspirational images to find ideas from their homes and connections to design professionals, Houzz has transitioned itself into an e-commerce giant. Now, without warning, it was sold to a company that some in the design industry fear is evolving into more of a competitor than an ally.

It was a place where designers stored their client contracts, purchase orders and preferred vendor lists. Launched a little over a year ago, IvyMark had quickly become a trusted resource for some 2,400 interior design professionals.