Much of the tech world is lamenting the deep, dark, and bitterly cold VC winter it finds itself mired in. Yet it’s apparently springtime in the home services branch of the broader tech community. Or so one might gather based on the news this week that the Canadian home services management software platform Jobber has raised an eye-popping $100 million Series D round.
The Series D round was led by global growth equity investor General Atlantic, with participation from existing Jobber investors Summit Partners, Version One Ventures, and Tech Pioneers Fund.
Jobber, based in Edmonton, Alberta, was founded in 2011 by current CEO Sam Pillar (above) and CTO Forrest Zeisler. According to Crunchbase, the company has raised $183.5 million, including this week’s Series D.
Jobber sits more in the B2B wing of the home services sector. It is not a marketplace like Thumbtack. Rather it is an all-in-one SaaS tool for home services professionals. The platform handles everything for home services pros from job estimating to appointment booking to invoicing and payments.
Jobber reportedly serves 200,000 home services pros and generated about $100 million in revenue in 2022.
Jobber says its “mission is to help small home service businesses modernize their operations, increase earning potential, and meet evolving consumer expectations.” This sounds a lot like what Localogy’s Modern Commerce Monitor study measures on an ongoing basis — the ongoing effort to use SaaS tools to make life easier as a business owner.
A Mission to Transform SMBs
Jobber’s CEO says all the right things in his statement about the new funding. Notably, he focused on the ongoing digital transformation of small businesses.
“While this is an important milestone for Jobber, what we care about most is the success of the small businesses we serve,” said CEO Pillar, adding, “we’re committed to doing everything we can to help them transform the way they deliver their services and operate their companies. We’re thrilled to partner with General Atlantic as we continue to pursue our mission of helping the people in small businesses be successful, and further entrench our leadership position in this important and growing small business category.”
From the investor’s viewpoint, Aaron Goldman, General Atlantic’s managing director and head of enterprise technology investing, had this to say.
“We believe Jobber is bringing much-needed innovation to the small business segment. [And this] category has been traditionally underserved by technology solutions and is still in the early stages of digital adoption. With a platform that is purpose-built for the home service category, Jobber has an opportunity to continue deepening its value as the platform of choice with its customers. We are pleased to partner with Sam and the Jobber leadership team as they focus on strategic growth and continued product expansion.”
Goldman joins Jobber’s board as part of the deal. This is pretty standard practice whenever a large new investor comes on the cap table.
The Titan of Services
Companies that help service professionals deploy technology to do business more effectively always seem to find favor with investors. Even when the wind chill kicks in on a VC winter like the one we’re having right now. One such company that we’ve followed closely is ServiceTitan, which raised $500 million less than two years ago to continue scaling its software platform for service pros.
ServiceTitan’s last massive raise was still in the era of cheap capital. And that is now firmly in our collective rearview mirror. Still, that Jobber could raise $100 million in this environment says a lot about the apparent ongoing investor confidence. At least in founders who are building solutions for pros who drive around in vans and fix things.
And most of these companies that we’ve been writing about here have been at it for a decade or more. Pillar and Zeisler founded Jobber in 2011. And California-based ServiceTitan was launched in 2007.
