American Family Insurance, of Madison, has spun out the home maintenance platform it has incubated for almost two years into its own independent company.
The newly launched firm, Fixle Inc., is a technology company designed to simplify how customers use, maintain, repair and manage their home systems and appliances. It was founded by Dave Theus, co-founder of insurance claims management tech firm Homee Inc., and Amanda Schulze.
In a late February press release, American Family said Fixle's new independence provides the company with more flexibility to innovate and expand within the proptech industry and extend its bench with best-in-class investors, advisers and partners.
American Family continues to be a minority investor in Fixle, according to the press release.
"As a minority investor, we're not just investing in a company; we're investing in a vision that has already shown substantial interest in the market," said Dan Reed, managing director of American Family Ventures, the investment arm of American Family Insurance.
Meet Fixle's CEO
Theus is a Cincinnati startup veteran who launched the new venture after incubating the idea at American Family. The company is now eyeing an early-stage fundraise just weeks following its public debut.
Theus will serve as CEO of Fixle, a title his LinkedIn page says he has held since August of 2022. The now-independent company has planted roots in Union, Kentucky, where Theus is based, with plans to move across the Ohio River into Cincinnati sometime in 2024 or 2025.
Fixle is the latest venture for Theus. He co-founded Homee – an insurtech that’s received backing from Liberty Mutual, State Farm, The Hartford and more – and more recently, Roamie, a now-shelved on-demand marketplace for travel, where he also served as its chief technology officer.
The new concept is one he always wanted to explore during Homee’s build out, Theus said. The company started as an on-demand home repair services marketplace – "the Uber of home services,” he said – but pivoted a couple times before landing in the insurtech space.
Fixle’s goal is to simplify home management. Theus said the number of appliances per household has grown, while the lifespan of those devices has decreased and repair cost have soared.
Using its platform, a user can walk up to any appliance and scan the label, and Fixle can extract the model number, serial number, manufacturing date and brand. Using artificial intelligence, it then matches the appliance with a curated warehouse of additional information: digital owner's manuals, warranty guides and troubleshooting suggestions.
It also constantly scans for product recalls and more.
“When Homee started, appliances were always the No. 1 issue we would see in the field,” Theus told me. “There’s still a huge market for this. A huge unmet need.”
Fixle’s target market includes home inspectors (they can scan appliances and systems and share their reports via an app/platform); service technicians (having appliance information pre-visit improves efficiency and reduces repeat visits and service time); property managers (they often have hundreds or thousands of appliances and systems across their portfolio); warranty and insurance companies (Fixle’s data can help with underwriting and servicing claims, Theus said); and homeowners, who want a centralized source for appliance and system information.
Theus said the information can help determine the useful life of an appliance. The company is building capabilities to send out repair or replace notifications to service techs.
The longer-term goal is to roll out access to a nationwide professional network to service appliances and systems, with the ability to schedule and more. And if you like to DIY, it can also help with that.
The company also has inked a handful of partnership agreements worth north of half a million dollars. Theus declined to disclose the partners. One, an insurance claims adjustment firm, is mandating Fixle’s use on every claim.
“It’s another revenue stream, and it really gets us a flywheel going pretty quickly,” Theus said.
Branching away from AmFam
Theus said a recruiter had reached out about the opportunity to serve as entrepreneur-in-residence at American Family’s startup studio, a foundry of sorts that works to repeatedly create new companies.
Fixle is one concept to launch from that effort.
Its team started working to develop an MVP, or minimum viable product, in January 2022, and Fixle made its public launch this February as a full-fledged spinout.
The move had AmFam’s full support as a minority investor.
"Our support for Fixle's launch as an independent entity reflects our confidence in their mission and the solution they're bringing to the table,” AmFam Ventures' Reed said in the news release.
Theus said Fixle is generating revenue. Its core leadership team is five members strong, and while Theus is the only employee locally based, Fixle’s chief technology officer served as a former engineering lead at Homee. The goal is to hire some local talent, he said, and eventually open a small office in Cincinnati. While Homee was based in Tampa, Florida, Roamie was based near Cincinnati's Findlay Market.
The company will look to raise $3 million to $5 million in seed-plus funding. The money will support development, customer support and sales.
Theus said American Family’s existing backing is huge, “especially because we're going to get into the insurance space,” he said.
The venture capital market proved tricky in 2023, but deal flow seems steadier especially for companies at an earlier stage.
“I'm really bullish on the seed side,” Theus said. “And we've been able to do a heck of a lot the past 18-plus months with really good user growth, and the technology under the hood is pretty sophisticated, which gives us a good moat."
