London-based startup MCADO has closed a $1.24m seed funding round from a group of private investors.
MCADO, (pronounced mi kā do) meaning entrance to the Palace in Japanese, is a radical technology platform aiming to bring home-related services into the 21st Century by partnering with consumer brands.
The company was co-founded by Rod Brown (MCADO’s CEO), former retail services director at Tesco and John Cushing (MCADO’s COO), founder of home services business PPR Solutions, which he has since exited.
Members of the founding team include:
· Adrian Lewis, CFO
· Ivan Bates, head of trade management
· David Howdle, head of systems development
· Attiq Qureshi, CTO
· Colin Goldring, head of business support
The seed funding will be used to create MCADO’s technology platform, which will be available via consumer brands.
This technology will allow customers to quickly arrange and manage home-related projects and receive a service that is guaranteed to be completed on budget and to specification.
The funding will also be used to forge key customer-facing brand partnerships for local beta testing.
Brown said:
“The retail sector is experiencing a seismic change. The profits of large retailers continue to be squeezed from traditional sales; in order to survive, retail and other brands will need to find value elsewhere.
“We believe that connecting core operations of major brands with better in-home services is a great opportunity.
“Right now there’s limited consumer protection for services undertaken in the home with no single all-encompassing solution on the market. MCADO weaves technology and people together to provide an excellent, assured, warranted solution with proven value in poorly served markets.
“It’s service as software, just like Uber or Airbnb, with just as much disruptive potential.”