We are fired up to announce our investment in Remi’s $21M Series A equity financing. Doug Barnett, Reno Mendenhall, and Brant Choate have created an opportunistic marketplace in a massive, fragmented, and underserved market—roofing.
Why We Invested
In a very short time Remi has created one of the most-efficient three-sided marketplaces that we have ever seen. They quickly identified that homeowners in need of a new roof have no obvious market leader they can trust, roofers are a drastically underserved corner of the small businesses world, and large enterprises lack a solution for nationwide roofing support.
Like any supply constrained marketplace, success starts with serving the suppliers, in this case, the roofers. Remi’s undeniable carrot is their ability to eliminate the need for contractors to constantly look for new work, immediately solving their biggest headache. On top of removing sales and marketing from their to-do list, Remi’s platform allows roofers to better manage their workforce, bid and manage projects, and collect money faster. It also allows contractors to better serve homeowners by providing timely progress updates using the workflow management software. Over time, contractors are able to build their rating on the platform, driving growth for their business.
But none of this would matter if homeowners and enterprises can’t trust the quality. Remi understands this, and puts each roofer through a selection and certification vetting process that ensures a high level of quality and customer satisfaction. Meanwhile, homeowners save time and money on roof replacement due to economies of scale that Remi enables. Customer experience is par excellence—one that the fragmented industry, composed of contractors mostly focused on one market, is unable to deliver.
That all sounds great in a slide deck, but Remi is actually making it work in practice, and the proof is in the solar industry. Exhibit A is the largest solar company in the country, Sunrun. As a large enterprise that needs roofing as a means to an end, making them the perfect proving ground to validate Remi. Sunrun is actively using the Remi product—and it’s working at scale. Remi has been able to drastically reduce the time it takes to roof or re-roof a home in preparation for solar panels. The reduction in time to deploy service for a new contract and downtime for a re-roofing project has a direct impact on revenues and costs for them.
Market Dynamics and Growth
The total roofing market is enormous, valued at $80 billion. It’s also incredibly fragmented, as illustrated by the fact that the largest roofing company in the United States holds a market share of only 1.6% (source: IBISWorld).
Remi’s ambition is not just to solve the individual homeowners problem of finding a new roofer, although that’s something they do well, it is to provide a turn-key nationwide roofing solution to large enterprises such as insurance companies, rits, retailers, hotels, property management, the list goes on.
As energy prices soar across the country and battery costs continue to come down, solar will become economically viable across most of the US. The shift towards renewable energy sources will continue to drive higher demand for solar installations, providing a substantial market opportunity for Remi.
Use of Funds:
The funds will allow Remi to supercharge the development of its product roadmap, go-to-market engine, and operations capabilities. The company intends to scale its B2B commercial engine across multiple vectors including partnerships with solar and insurance companies, expanded geographical coverage, and additional home services.
We are excited to welcome Remi to the Cervin Ventures family!
