The Home Depot unveiled Home Depot Ventures, a venture capital fund that will “identify, fund and partner with early-stage companies to accelerate emerging technologies that aim to improve the customer experience and shape the future of home improvement,” a Tuesday (May 3) press release said.
The $150 million 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.” It will target startups that better serve their customers and employees and deliver operational excellence, according to the Home Depot press release.
“With Home Depot Ventures, we’re lending our support and expertise to enable rapid scale of innovation,” said Richard McPhail, executive vice president and chief financial officer of The Home Depot, in the press release. “This is an exciting opportunity to find and scale the next big ideas in technology and retail.”
The fund will invest in companies at all stages of business but will emphasize early-stage and growth-stage companies.
Home Depot has invested in several companies in the past, including Afero, a secure, end-to-end Internet of Things (IoT) platform; Loadsmart, a freight technology company designed to help shippers and carriers price, book and move freight; Made Renovation, an end-to-end digital platform for bathroom renovations; and Roadie, a crowdsourced delivery platform that enabled same-day delivery to more than 20,000 zip codes before UPS acquired it in 2021.
Also read: Amazon Launches $1B Robotics, Logistics Fund
Last month, Amazon announced the $1 billion Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund, a venture capital financing pool that supports customer fulfillment, logistics and supply chain innovation.
The fund’s first round of investments will focus on wearable technology that enhances safety in fulfillment buildings as well as robotics “designed to complement and coexist with people’s lives,” the company said in the announcement.
Related: Dubai Unveils $100M Venture Capital Fund for Startups
Venture capital funds have been popping up with greater frequency around the world lately. Among one of the largest recent additions to the landscape is the $100.7 million venture capital fund in Dubai that’s aimed at helping startups across the region.
The Venture Capital Fund for Startups will launch in June to “promote the economic growth of the emirate and consolidate its position as a global center for financial technology (FinTech) and innovation in investment capital,” a tweet from the Executive Office said.
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