Home improvement company Lowe’s has led a $27.6m series A round for US-based home renovation network Porch.com that valued it at more than $85m, Dow Jones reported on Thursday.
Lowe’s is also planning to form a corporate venturing fund. Its past investments include solar installation company Sungevity, energy monitoring company AlertMe and membership-based workshop TechShop.
Jay Rebello, vice president of new business development and corporate innovation for Lowe’s, told Dow Jones that it is investing in start-ups in the services sector because of its strategic importance to the company.
“We are starting to build the capacity for a fund,” Rebello said. “We don’t have a dollar amount attached to it.”
The round, which was actually closed late in 2013, has enabled Porch to expand from 25 members of staff to around 200. Founded in 2011, Porch operates as an online marketplace for home improvement professionals and a depository for public records on residential homes.
Porch previously raised $6.3m in seed funding in June 2013 from SV Angel and a host of angel investors.