Home Depot launches venture capital fund
The Home Depot is on the lookout for emerging technologies.
The home improvement giant has launched a $150 million venture capital fund to identify, invest in and partner with emerging tech companies focused on improving the customer experience and shaping the future of home improvement. The new Home Depot Ventures fund aims to invest in companies that “advance The Home Depot's ability to provide a seamless interconnected shopping experience, develop new and differentiated capabilities,” the company said.
The fund will consider investment opportunities in businesses at various stages of development, with an emphasis on early and growth stage companies that solve challenges for The Home Depot's customers and show potential to scale. The fund will provide growing companies with direct access to the expertise and expansive footprint of the retailer’s broader enterprise.
“With Home Depot Ventures, we’re lending our support and expertise to enable rapid scale of innovation,” said Richard McPhail, executive VP and CFO of The Home Depot. “This is an exciting opportunity to find and scale the next big ideas in technology and retail.”
Home Depot’s venture capital fund joins a growing number of VC funds created in the retail space. In April, Amazon announced the launch of a $1 billion venture investment program for logistics and fulfillment technology. Also in April, Chipotle Mexican Grill launched Cultivate Next, a $50 million venture fund to foster innovation in restaurant operations.
Home Depot has made several investments in the past, including Afero, a secure, end-to-end Internet of Things (IoT) platform to provide smart capabilities for products in virtually any industry, and Loadsmart, a freight technology company designed to help shippers and carriers price, book and move freight more efficiently.
[Read More: Home Depot co-launches new flatbed marketplace]
Additional Home Depot investments include Made Renovation, an end-to-end digital platform for bathroom renovations, and Roadie, a crowdsourced delivery platform that enables same-day delivery to more than 20,000 zip codes nationwide, which was acquired by UPS in 2021.