The Lessen Home Services Marketplace, which aims to facilitate logistics at every stage of home services and repairs for residents and service professionals, today announced the closing of a Series B increase carrying the valuation of the company to more than a billion dollars. The latest $ 170 million increase was spearheaded by Fifth Wall with participation from Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst and Navitas Capital. Lessen closed a Series A less than six months ago with the same group of investors.

Lessen founder Jay McKee emailed the new funding round for which “would invest heavily in product experiences that will include smart notifications, advanced multimedia progress reports, and responsive time tracking. of the location ”. He also added that Lessen plans to expand to fifty markets in the United States and will continue to invest in data capabilities, such as providing analytics and insights to customers while standardizing business processes and creating on-the-job training.

Prior to founding Lessen McKee was the founder of Colony American Homes, a residential rental company (which merged with Starwood Waypoint Residential Trust in 2015). McKee says it was his experience in the rental business that showed him the many layers of inefficiency and waste that exist between owners and suppliers of everything from plumbing to cleaning services. He launched Lessen to create a digital platform where owners can find service providers and where providers can manage their jobs from service request to final payment.

“Our service professionals grow their businesses with fast payments and predictable work on a specially designed technology platform,” McKee said. “Many service professionals use Lessen as their default job source, eliminating the hassle of business development and customer management. ”

Lessen currently operates in over 30 markets with around 2,000 service providers and around 450 employees. The company aims to hire at least 1,000 additional people in 2022.