HOMA2U (HOMA), the online-to-offline marketplace for building materials and home finishing products, has secured a series of funding which include Warisan Quantum Management, a private equity fund management company based in Kuala Lumpur.
The total raised amounted to RM2.4 million (USD 567,000). Prior to that ScaleUp Malaysia with investment partner Quest Ventures Pte Ltd invested via the ScaleUp Malaysia’s Accelerator programme where HOMA is one of the top 10 startups from the Cohort 2 batch.
As Malaysia’s first full-fledged overstock platform for Home Improvement, HOMA looks towards prioritising the sustainability factors in their day to day business operations to reduce the environmental impact.
“Sustainability has become a trend in home renovation and design. When considering sustainability, trending items are not just about what is fashionable, it’s also about doing the most for our environment. By championing the notion of reducing, reuse and repurpose, our strategy includes acquiring building materials and interior finishes products from unused construction materials, discarded materials and overstock markets,” says Pennie Lim, the Founder of HOMA.
“During the pandemic, we pivoted slightly into a more servicing and building an ecosystem effort rather than a product based approach that we were used to. With the fundraise intact, we are able to put efforts towards building and extending more revenue streams rather than sticking to one at the moment which is just profit from products sold. One of our key strategies that has been put in place will be reaching out to more customers via our HOMA Yellow Boxes.”
In today’s pandemic climate, customers are encouraged to order home improvement necessities from the comfort of our homes and skip the hassle of visiting brick-and-mortar stores.
Aimed to expand to 10 locations (within Malaysia) with the Yellow Box concept, it will bring their products showcase closer to the customers by using affiliate partnerships and utilising partner’s physical outlet space to place the Yellow Boxes such as furniture outlets and hardware stores, carrying up to 1,000 sku of products.
With the QR Code technology that provides unique codes to customers as keys to enter the Yellow Box, customers will be able to have an impactful shopping experience with HOMA.
“The investment from Warisan Quantum Management is further validation of the tremendous value that HOMA is creating for the industry. We were impressed by the focus given on ensuring the impact values whilst being innovative at their business. HOMA has been thoughtful and strategic in their approach to scale nationwide and we are confident that HOMA will grow even stronger when they go beyond the Malaysian shores too when the time comes,” said Joehary Ismail, Managing Director of Warisan Quantum Management.
HOMA is a Cradle Fund’s Coach & Grow Programme Cohort 5 Batch (CGP5) Alumni and a nominee for Women Entrepreneur of the Year for CGP5 Cohort. HOMA was also part of the SITEC Selangor Accelerator Programme Alumni where they emerged as Top 5 startups in Cohort 1 (RM6,000 cash prize won) and top 10 finalist for Junior Chamber International Creative Young Entrepreneur Award (JCI CYEA) in 2019.
