European online marketplace Mano Mano has raised
110 million in a new funding round and has confirmed the company’s 2020 ambition of achieving €1 billion in sales. This series D fund raising sees new investors Eurazeo Growth, Aglae Ventures and Bpifrance via its fund Large Venture join previous Mano Mano investors CM-CIC, Partech, Piton, BPI and General Atlantic.
With this latest round the scale-up aims to develop its offering for professionals and seller experience as well as recruit high profile tech talent and continue its European conquest, especially in the UK market.
Since its creation, Mano Mano’s mission has been to empower individuals, professionals and retailers to make their own kind of world, freeing them from the traditional restrictions of DIY through a collaborative platform and innovative services. Worth a total of €365 billion in Europe, both the BtoC and BtoB DIY markets are amongst the last to adapt to the modern digital consumer.
The leading European platform for DIY and gardening currently has over 20 million monthly visits with over 2.5 million active clients in 2018, twice the number registered in September 2017 when the company last raised funds. In 2018, Mano Mano continued its growth with an 85% increase in sales.
Operating in six countries (France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Germany and the UK), the company places user experience at the heart of its development through technological innovation and healthy relationships with their sellers. The 370-strong team will continue to pursue its mission with core values of ingenuity, boldness and care.
As the second biggest European DIY market, worth 27 billion euros, the UK is key for Mano Mano. Our aim is for the UK to account for 25% of all sales, and results so far are encouraging as this is the fastest growing country with a 200% increase on sales since launch.
Mano Mano has raised 110 million euros in a new funding round. New entrants include Eurazeo Growth, Aglaé Ventures and Bpifrance, via its Growth Fund Large Venture, each confident in the strength of the platform’s model, in its innovation and in its growth potential in the B2B market.
“It is with great enthusiasm that we are entering Mano Mano's capital today. We have been following the company for more than three years and have witnessed its spectacular development in a very vast sector that has begun its digital transformation and where the experience of customers, individuals and professionals can be significantly improved." said Yann du Rusquec, managing director of Eurazeo Growth, an entity created by the merger between the Idinvest Growth and Eurazeo Croissance teams.
“We are particularly impressed with what Mano Mano has done and their capacity to constantly innovate to differentiate from competition. Bpifrance entered the capital in early 2016 with our Ambition Numérique Fund, to finance the business’s international expansion. Large Venture now enters to renew our trust in the team and support them in their commercial development, including their new logistical service and BtoB offer, whilst maintaining efforts in R & D. We’re convinced ManoMano has the potential to become the worldwide leader for its market and this is the reason we have chosen to strengthen our capital investment.” state Maïlys Ferrère, Director of Equity Large Venture and Xavier Deleplace, Deputy Director of the Digital Pole at Bpifrance.
Previous investors including CM-CIC, Partech, Piton and General Atlantic also took part in this round, renewing their support and long-term trust in ManoMano and its teams.
These funds are in addition to the 76 million euros previously raised, making a total of 186 million euros raised in five years.
With innovation playing a key role in Mano Mano’s success to date, the platform wishes to go well beyond end customer satisfaction.
With the will to ensure its partner sellers flourish in the French and European market, the business offers powerful logistical services in France (dedicated fulfilment platform launched in November 2018) and innovative services to support their activity (billing service, sales optimisation tools, market data…).
Their most recent strategic choice was the launch of ManoManoPro in March 2019, a platform dedicated to professionals. The business aims to disrupt the way building professionals purchase their materials, attacking a market worth €200 billion in Europe.
Mano Mano has said it will recruit the best tech talent in Europe. In 2019, Mano Mano has said one hundred developers, data scientists and data engineers will join the teams in Paris, Bordeaux and Barcelona.
“Our ambition is to truly transform the way we do e-commerce in our industry. To do so, we must have the best tech teams in Europe. Our pro-European, company is the ideal place for tech talents to imagine the new face of e-commerce and enjoy daily challenges.” explain Philippe de Chanville and Christian Raisson, founders of Mano aMano.
Mano Mano has said it will continue its conquest of Europe, with five countries outside of France already representing 25% of its business volume. These countries saw three-digit growth in 2018.
Today, Mano Mano aims for its foreign markets to follow in the footsteps of their French counterpart, with a focus on international customer acquisition in Italy and Spain, while increasing seller catalogues in both the UK and Germany.
Mano Mano plans to support the growth of its European merchants, outside its home country, with a goal of 200 to 300 million euros in sales by 2020.
“To compete with Chinese and American e-commerce giants, our international development is essential. The funds raised will enable us to upscale our presence in Europe and continue to disrupt the DIY industry, while still guaranteeing a first class customer experience.” explain the founders of Mano Mano.