Member Article

Local services marketplace, StarOfService, secures $10m investment

StarOfService, Europe’s leading marketplace for local services, has successfully raised $10m in Series A investment. It follows two previous seed funding rounds worth $2m in total and will accelerate the French start-up’s ambitious expansion plans to take the global leadership position.

StarOfService, launched in 2013, sees more than two million requests going through its site from customers looking to find local support services to meet specific needs – anything from wedding photographers, plumbers, language teachers and DJs, to Pokémon Go ‘masters’ for hire. The platform generates over €800m in business volume to the service professionals listed on its site - and growing at 400% year-on-year.

The funding round was lead by Andrea Piccioni and Silvio Pagliani (co-founders of Real Web SA and founders of immobiliare.it - Italy’s largest real estate platform), ENERN Investments and Point Nine Capital, who were joined by a number of angel investors including founders and senior executives from high-profile brands like DocPlanner and eBay. They join previous investors Klaus Nyengaard, the former CEO of JustEat and current chairman at Treatwell; BlaBlaCar founders Frédéric Mazzella and Francis Nappez; former eBay and mobile.de executive Ralph Werner; and former CEO of Fotolia, Oleg Tscheltzoff.

Lucas Lambertini, co-founder and CEO of StarOfService, said: “We are thrilled to have secured the financial backing and support of some of Europe’s most successful entrepreneurs, a team of people who have built global business success stories. We want to create the Uber for local services professionals, and we’re already growing at an exponential rate.

“This investment round will help us accelerate that growth further, to become the global leader in the next couple of years. As part of that ambition, we will be recruiting talent to build a global team that shares our vision and can deliver on that huge opportunity.”

Andrea Piccioni and Silvio Pagliani, co-founders of Real Web SA, commented: “StarOfService is a powerful reminder that market-leading innovation is happening right here in Europe, and this startup has the potential to become a huge success story. The team is incredibly ambitious and has already proven an impressive ability to execute on its disruptive vision. We are confident it will muscle its way to becoming a global leader in no time at all, and we strongly feel like we are a great fit for the company.”

StarOfService already has a strong online presence in a number of countries including Italy (www.starofservice.it), Spain (www.starofservice.es), Germany (www.starofservice.de), the UK (www.starofservice.co.uk), Poland (www.starofservice.pl), Australia (www.starofservice.com.au), Canada (www.starofservice.ca), Turkey (www.starofservice.web.tr), Brazil (www.starofservice.com.br), India (www.starofservice.in) and France (www.starofservice.com).

New investors:

- Andrea Piccioni and Silvio Pagliani, co-founders of Real Web SA – a holding company with leading online assets in real-estate and other marketplaces globally. Piccioni was formerly managing director of eBay, and Pagliani was formerly marketing director, also at eBay. (ITALY)

- ENERN Investments - a venture capital | private equity group. In consumer internet, ENERN invests into marketplaces, e-commerce, and fintech companies at early and growth stages. It manages 100M EUR funds. It has offices in Prague and Warsaw. More about them on www.enern.eu. (CZECH)

- Mariusz Gralewski, founder and CEO of Docplanner.com, the largest player in online healthcare bookings (by traffic) globally. Also founder and CEO of Goldeline.pl. the largest business social network in Poland. (POLAND)

- Mateusz Romanowski, CEO of Allani - fashion social e-commerce marketplace. (POLAND)

- Rasmus Wolff, former executive at JustEat - the world’s leading online takeaway ordering service, operating in 13 countries around the globe. (NL)

- Marcel Beemsterboer, who previously invested in Treatwell before its exit in 2015. (NL)

- RTA Ventures, which has made 21 investments in last 5 years across Europe. (POLAND)

- Protos Venture Capital, made up of successful Internet entrepreneurs along with experienced Venture Capital and Private Equity fund managers. (POLAND)

Previous investors:

- Point Nine Capital, which also invested in this current round (GERMANY)

- Klaus Nyengaard, the former CEO of JustEat (DENMARK)

- BlaBlaCar founders, Frédéric Mazzella and Francis Nappez (FRANCE)

- Former eBay and mobile.de executive, Ralph Werner (GERMANY)

- Former CEO of Fotolia, Oleg Tscheltzoff (SWITZERLAND)

- Kima Ventures (FRANCE)

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by StarOfService .