One of modern society's original startups is starting a neighborhood lawn mowing service. For teens across the nation, it's been almost a business right of passage to mow as many lawns as you can in whatever area you can reasonably push your mower to and fro.
Well, software is augmenting that tradition, too.
LawnStarter, an Austin startup that launched its on-demand mowing and outdoor services business in 2013, is already in 120 U.S. markets. And it's poised to continue growing by adding new services, such as landscaping and pest control, with a new $10.5 million growth investment.
The new funding, announced Tuesday, was led by Princeton, N.J.-based growth equity firm Edison Partners. Earlier investors, including Lerer Hippeau, also contributed. The new round brings LawnStarter's total funding to $24 million. Its early investors have included Bull Creek Capital, Techstars, Cotter Cunningham (founder of RetailMeNot) and Gary Vaynerchuk (author and chairman of VaynerX).
"Six years ago, my two college friends and I started LawnStarter, an on-demand platform for lawn service," co-founder and COO Ryan Farley wrote in an email. "At first there was just the three of us and an intern in a two bedroom apartment with no furniture. We lived on bulk purchases from Costco knowing that what we were building would become something much bigger."
And, indeed, it has grown at a steady clip.
It covers a variety of big metro areas, including Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Miami, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Richmond, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, Seattle, Tampa and Washington, D.C. It has launched its landscaping service in Austin, Dallas, Houston and Orlando.
LawnStarter provides on-demand lawn mowing services through its website and its app. It matches consumers with vetted lawn service providers in their area. The company says it is profitable and is growing 100% year-over-year.
“In the highly decentralized lawn care industry, ordering service takes days, communication is poor, and caring for your home requires hiring several different companies,” LawnStarter CEO and co-founder Steve Corcoran said in a news release. “We’ve brought vetted and fully insured professionals together to give consumers the best possible experience."
Corcoran co-founded the company with Farley, who is COO, and Jonas Weigert, who is CTO. The company differentiated from traditional mowing services by providing quick quotes online and by partnering with vetted outdoor services professionals, which in turn has helped those small mowing businesses grow, too, by channeling new business to them.
LawnStarter's app, for example, uses geolocation tracking to help inform its estimating software and track crews in real time. It offers its software for free to lawn care businesses, giving them a tool for scheduling work, choosing routes for crews and dealing with invoicing.
As part of the new funding round, Daniel Herscovici, a partner at Edison Partners, will join LawnStarter's board of directors. The company now has about 125 employees.
