Building materials marketplace HOMA2U secures US$567k funding

• Pivoted into more servicing & building ecosystem from product based
• HOMA Yellow Boxes key strategy to reach out to more customers

HOMA2U (HOMA), a Malaysian online-to-offline marketplace for building materials and home finishing products, announced that it has secured US$567,000 (RM2.4 million) in funding which include Warisan Quantum Management, a private equity fund based in Kuala Lumpur.

Prior to this ScaleUp Malaysia with investment partner Quest Ventures Pte Ltd invested US$59,200 (RM250,000) via ScaleUp Malaysia’s Accelerator programme where HOMA is one of the 10 startups from Cohort 2. "We're very proud of Pennie and her team at Homa. Their passion and vision in building a business that focusses on sustainability was crystal clear from the start. We are happy to be on this journey with them as they build the leading O2O marketplace for building materials and home furnishings," said Xelia Tong, Managing Partner ScaleUp Malaysia

As Malaysia's first full-fledged overstock platform for home improvement, HOMA looks towards prioritising 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,” explained Pennie Lim, the founder and CEO 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, we are able to put efforts towards building and extending more revenue streams rather than sticking to 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,” Pennie explains.

“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 when the time comes,” said Joehary Ismail (pic), Managing Director of Warisan Quantum Management.

In today’s pandemic climate, consumers are encouraged to order home improvement necessities from their homes and skip the hassle of visiting brick-and-mortar stores.

However, HOMA who have been in business since 2017 understood the necessity to design strategies focused on the shopping experiences of their customers, of how touch and appearance impact the purchasing decisions. With that understanding, HOMA is working towards building mobile pop-up stores branded as Yellow Box to cater to their offline-online customer needs seamlessly.

It aims to expand to 10 locations within Malaysia with the Yellow Box concept, it will bring product 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 SKUs.

With the QR Code 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.

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.