Thumbtack, the rapidly growing online San Francisco-based service that lists for-hire professionals from various industries, has received a $125 million round of late-stage funding that it plans to use to improve its algorithm and add to its list of tools on the site, such as payments or scheduling.
The round was led by Baillie Gifford, the Edinburgh, Scotland-based investment firm, as well as previous investors Tiger Global, Google Capital, and Sequoia Capital. The new capital followed a $100 million round in 2014. Thumbtack has a $1.3 billion valuation, according to The New York Times.
Founded in 2009, the company attempts to match anyone in need of a service with a professional—from a plumber to a yoga instructor—who can do it. There’s no shortage of similar online marketplaces, from Yelp! to Elance to TaskRabbit, in what Thumbtack says is a $700 billion market. The company says it helps 200,000 professionals generate $1 billion in revenue every year.
“We’re much more like a dating service than a directory,” CEO Marco Zappacosta wrote in a blog post yesterday about matching customers with businesses. “We’re matching two very unique sets of requirements: aligning the specific needs of one individual with the skills and availability of another.”
