After raising over $100m, Irish-founded home services firm Handy has been acquired
The terms for the sale of Oisin Hanrahan’s company were not released.
US GROUP ANGI Homeservices has agreed to acquire Handy, a firm founded by Irish entrepreneur Oisin Hanrahan that had raised over $100 million from investors.
Set up in 2012 by Hanrahan and his co-founder Umang Dua, Handy Technologies has developed an on-demand booking system for pre-screened cleaning and DIY workers.
Three years ago, the New York-based firm raised a $50 million round of funding, which brought total investment in the firm up to nearly $111 million.
In an announcement, Nasdaq-listed Angi Homeservices has confirmed it has agreed a deal to acquire Hanrahan’s firm. The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Following the deal, Hanrahan and Dua will retain their respective roles as chief executive and chief operations officer at Handy.
Hanrahan said the acquisition deal will allow Handy to reach more customers and scale the firm.
Oisin Hanrahan
Angi Homeservices chief executive Chris Terrill said the move would give Angi Homeservices a “strong foothold” in the gig-economy sector.
He added that it will allow the firm to grow its in-home services offerings, such as installation assistance of purchased items such as furniture, TVs and ceiling fans.
“Our customers want to book and instantly buy all kinds of household services from us, and with Handy we can seamlessly deliver on more requests, faster,” Terrill said.
The completion of the deal is still subject to US regulatory approval, which is expected to be finalised this month.
Standalone business
Hanrahan has set up a number of startups and initiatives prior to Handy. During his stint in university, he established a real estate development firm Clearwater Group, which oversaw a number of multimillion-euro developments in Hungary.
He also formed the Undergraduate Awards in 2009 and MiCandidate, an online source of election information in Europe.
Hanrahan formed Handy after studying at Harvard Business School and raised cash from Fidelity Management, TPG Ventures, General Catalyst, Highland Capital and Revolution Growth.
His firm has partnered with retailers such as Walmart to provide product installation services. It will continue as a standalone business under its new owner.
Colorado-based Angi Homeservices was formed last year following a merger of home improvement advice firm Angie’s List and home services marketplace HomeAdvisor. It listed on the stock market this time last year.
Latest filings for the US group show it lost $100 million last year, and the move to acquire Handy has come at a time when other home services firms in the space have struggled to make a profit.
On-demand cleaning firm Helpling has posted multimillion-euro losses in the UK and Ireland in recent years, with the latter operation plunging a further €549,000 into the red in 2017 to take accumulated losses to €2.29 million.
