LawnStarter acquires Lawn Love

AUSTIN & SAN DIEGO — LawnStarter, a provider of on-demand lawn and outdoor care, has acquired Lawn Love in a cash-and-stock deal. Financial terms were not disclosed.

As people spend more time at home, they seek easier ways to manage upkeep and improve their homes, and are more comfortable doing so on a mobile app. Combined, LawnStarter and Lawn Love will benefit providers of outdoor home services by enabling them to take on more jobs, thereby boosting the revenue of thousands of small businesses across the country.

“The combination of LawnStarter and Lawn Love will further propel growth of the on-demand economy for lawn care and other outdoor services,” said LawnStarter Co-founder and CEO Steve Corcoran. “Joining forces enables LawnStarter and Lawn Love to be even more disruptive together as we continue to revolutionize the outdoor services industry.”

LawnStarter and Lawn Love are graduates of two prominent accelerators, Techstars and Y Combinator. The companies have benefited from the rise in on-demand marketplaces dominated by companies such as Uber, Lyft, Doordash and GrubHub, where PwC predicts the global value of the sharing economy —driven primarily by millennials — will reach $335 billion by 2025. 

Lawn Love Founder and CEO Jeremy Yamaguchi says his company’s acquisition by LawnStarter allows both businesses to better capitalize on the growth of on-demand, tech-enabled services since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and positions the combined company as a clear market leader.

“This deal effectively teleports both Lawn Love and LawnStarter years into the future,” Yamaguchi said. “It’s a dramatic acceleration toward our goal of empowering small business owners by providing the technology and tools to help them grow their businesses, compete with the big guys and ultimately thrive.”

The home services market has seen a flurry of activity in the last year. Home service marketplace Porch, which has been building market share through acquisitions, went public via SPAC and has a market cap of $1.7 billion. Thumbtack raised $275 million, nearly doubling its valuation since its last fundraise in 2019. Earlier this month, private equity firm KKR announced plans to acquire home services platform Neighborly from Harvest Partners. Contractor-management software provider ServiceTitan has raised a total of $1.1 billion with a valuation of $9.5 billion.

LawnStarter and Lawn Love will operate as separate brands, led by Corcoran as CEO. LawnStarter’s headquarters will stay in Austin. Yamaguchi is remaining with the combined company.