Dealt, a French startup formerly known as Mon Super Voisin, raised a €6 million ($6.5 million at today's exchange rates) funding round a few months ago.
More importantly, the startup underwent a significant pivot, and this funding round proves that strategy was correct. This is an interesting lesson for early-stage founders who are thinking about pivoting but aren't ready to do so yet.
For our French-speaking readers, as the name suggests, Mon Super Voisin was a quintessential household freelancer marketplace: you could use the platform to find a “neighbor” who could mount your TV on the wall, help you assemble furniture or arrange a spring clean for your house.
The company found that some of these services were one-off jobs that didn't generate repeat business: Even if customers found a gardener or cleaner through the platform, they would often bypass the platform entirely and pay the person directly.
At the same time, many of these tasks can be considered post-purchase services: when you buy a washing machine, you may need help transporting it to the right room and setting it up.
“After analysing our business, we found that more than two-thirds of user requests at the time of Mon Super Voisin were actually requests from retail customers who needed help after purchasing something,” Mickael Braconnier, co-founder and CEO of Dealt, told TechCrunch.
That's why Dealt is building a services platform for retailers, not end users. To start, the company partnered with Mr. Bricolage, a popular French DIY retailer, for which Dealt operates a white-label platform, allowing it to upsell services to its own clients.
“We helped them develop a delivery and installation service to their homes, focusing on the installation of products including light fittings, curtain rails, mixer taps, toilets and shower cubicles,” Braconnier said.
Before partnering with Dealt, some of Mr. Bricolage's stores had business cards of local craftsmen and gave them to customers. However, there was no way to know the price in advance, the store did not gain any profit from the transaction, and customers sometimes went to another store that offered proper installation services.
Dealt's new distribution strategy is more efficient because the company now operates as a SaaS startup and everyone's interests are aligned. After paying an initial setup fee, Dealt's clients pay a monthly subscription fee to access the platform. Subscriptions vary depending on the number of stores that use Dealt's tools and marketplace.
Retailers like Mr. Bricolage can then generate new revenue streams by offering their services and earning a commission on each transaction, and for service providers, it becomes another marketplace to help them find customers.
For example, Jardiland, Truffaut and Botanic have all partnered with Dealt to offer gardening services. Some gardeners may already have their own customer base but may be a bit quiet during the winter months, and partnering with Dealt could be a way for them to supplement their revenue.
Other Dealt clients include Fnac-Darty, Orange, E.Leclerc, Conforama, Boulanger, 3Suisses and Rue du Commerce. Some of these retailers have partnered with Dealt to offer services that aren't necessarily related to new purchases: clients might want to repair something, transfer data from an old smartphone to a new one, or resell old household appliances.
La Poste Ventures (run by XAnge) is leading the €6 million funding round, with participation from GO Capital, One Green, Holnest, Neo Founders and a number of business angels.
Dealt currently works with 10,000 service providers, 500 retailers and 40 e-commerce clients, and plans to expand to other European countries next year, starting with Belgium, Switzerland and Spain.