Porch (company)

Porch (also called Porch.com or Porch Group, Inc.) is a home services platform that helps home and property owners maintain their homes, by connecting them with professionals. The Seattle-based company was founded in 2013 by CEO Matt Ehrlichman, Eric Schleicher, Ha Phan, Ronnie Castro, and Scott Austin.

The company began as a home improvement and repair service marketplace and has since added services to provide a "vertical software platform for homes." A major revenue source for Porch stems from from insurtech layered on top of marketplace matchmaker service.

As of January 2021, over two-thirds of US home buyers directly or indirectly use Porch platform tools every month.

Porch went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange on December 24, 2020, raising $322 million through a merger with PropTech Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition corporation (SPAC), and private investing from Wellington Management Company. The company's market capitalization surpassed $1 billion in its public debut based on an initial share price of $15 per share and cash on hand. Porch is listed under the ticker symbol "PRCH" and was the fifth Washington State company to go public in 2020.

The company was added to the Russell 2000 Index on US equity markets on June 28, 2021. The annual Russell indexes reconstitution captures the largest 4,000 US stocks, ranks them by total market capitalization, and are used by institutional investors and index funds as benchmarks for active investment strategies.

Porch offers a range of services, including its original home improvement service marketplace, enterprise resource planning (ERP) tools, and customer-relation management (CRM) software. The company began as a platform that gives information on and connects customers to home improvement services, but pivoted in recent years to serve home service companies as well.

Porch earns revenue through its CRM and ERP software licenses and transaction fees when it connects homebuyers and homeowners to service providers, such as insurers, movers, handymen, security systems, and internet providers.

Despite a shift to primarily serving enterprise businesses, Porch still offers home service comparisons, cost guides, and planning guides and allows individuals to connect with professionals through the platform.

Porch's vertical software platform offers software and services access to consumers and delivery services for home service providers. The platform also offers homeowners services from before moving in through the life of a home, including pre-move (insurance, inspections, repair estimates), moving services, maintenance, and home improvement services.

Porch has raised $269 million since its founding, including six funding rounds before going public and a $150 million post-IPO equity round led by Wellington Management Company.

Porch started raising money with two seed rounds in 2013. It followed these investments with a $27.6 million Series A in 2014, led by Lowe's, and a $65 million Series B in 2015 led by Valor Equity Partners. The company's final funding round before going public, a January 2020 Series C, raised $21 million.

Porch has made nine total acquisitions since 2014, including MostLikely, Elemental Foundry, Fountain Software, SERVIZ, HireAHelper, iRoofing, Palm-Tech, V12 Data, and Homeowners of America.

MostLikely, a web-based property tax assessment and appeals service, and Elemental Foundry, a group organization and communication platform, were the first companies acquired by Porch in 2014. The company followed these in late 2014 with the purchase of Fountain Software, a mobile app developer that connected customers with experts over video chat.

Three years later, Porch acquired SERVIZ, a web and mobile application that enabled users to find and book home service providers. It purchased labor marketplace HireAHelper in July 2019.

Porch acquired four companies in January 2020, shortly after its public listing, for at least $122 million. The company purchased Homeowners of America (HoA) and V12 Data for $100 million and $22 million, adding HoA's home insurance technology and V12 Data's mover market and data platform to its tech stack. Porch also acquired home-inspection service provider Palm-Tech and and SaaS roofing contractor portal iRoofing for undisclosed amounts.

In August 2021, Porch announced the acquisition of title software company Rynoh for a total of $35 million, $31.5 of which was cash at closing and the remaining $3.5 million due in April 2023. Rynoh's technology is used by title agent, and the deal is designed to expand Porch's reach across geographies and home-service sectors.