Irish-founded start-up Hometree raises £2.9m

Boiler installation company Hometree, a UK-based start-up founded by Dubliner Simon Phelan, has raised £2.9 million (€3.3m) in investment less than a year after securing £1.9 million in seed funding.

The round was led by Literacy Capital, a vehicle chaired by Paul Pindar, chairman of listed online estate agent Purplebricks and mattress maker Eve Sleep. He is best known for leading British outsourcing giant Capita for 23 years.

Dawn Marriot-Sims, a former joint chief operating officer and board member of Capita who is to become chairwoman of Hometree, is another backer, as is Anthony Gutman, head of UK at Goldman Sachs.

Previous backers DN Capital, LocalGlobe and Oxford Capital, who all took part in Hometree's seed fund last June, also participated in the latest round.

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“We’re thrilled that without even looking for new money we have attracted investment from some of the City’s most experienced investors and business leaders with exceptional operating experience at the highest levels,” said Mr Phelan, the company’s chief executive. “We have grown rapidly in our first trading year, but this fresh injection of capital will enable us to scale faster than we anticipated.”

Hometree claims to be the UK heating industry’s first digitally-led boiler installation company. It says it can deliver a boiler installation service that undercuts British Gas by as much as 50 per cent. While it is initially focused on boilers, it intends to provide other home services over time.

The company currently employs 25 full-time people and 50 freelance gas engineers. The business is primarily active in London and Essex, but expects to start installing boilers in key towns and cities throughout the southeast of England, Southampton and Bristol later this year.