It is no secret how much tougher it has become over the last few years to raise VC dollars in the home services space. Even Rocket Internet’s Helpling reportedly had to take a down round when it raised a further €10 million earlier this year.
This can partly be explained by Amazon’s interest in the home services market, and also because of high-profile failures, such as that experienced by Homejoy.
But we’re not quite done yet, with news that Nordic home cleaning startup Freska, which is headquartered in Finland but also operates in Norway, has picked up a modest €2 million in new funding. Leading the round is Sweden’s Spintop Ventures, with participation from Norway’s Momentum Partners.
A number of individual investors also joined including Lasse Smedsvig and Harald Aalvik, founders of Adams Matkasse in Norway, and Olli Sirkiä, co-founder of Finnish SaaS company Leaddesk. Freska also received public grants and loans from Finland’s public innovation fund Tekes as a part of the financing.
Meanwhile, I’m told the new capital will be used to acquire more customers in the Nordic region, including expanding to further cities and another country, and to further develop Freska’s tech platform.
In a call, Freska co-founder and CEO Sebastian Heinrichs declared the “on-demand” home cleaning market dead. That’s because, he argues, it never actually existed. Instead, home cleaning is all about regularly scheduled and repeat business. “[It’s…