The ManoMano site raises 110 million euros to expand internationally

This capital, which is added to the 76 million euros raised previously, for a total of 186 million euros raised in five years, has been raised with the company's historic investors, CM-CIC, Partech, Piton and General Atlantic, to which are added the Eurazeo Growth, Aglaé Ventures and Bpifrance funds, said a press release on Monday.

Born in 2013 and present in six countries - in addition to France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom - the company presents itself as "the European leader in DIY and online gardening" , a market valued at 365 billion euros, sales to professionals and individuals combined.

In France, online commerce still only represented 3% of a DIY market valued at nearly 26 billion euros in 2017, dominated (77%) by large specialized stores such as Leroy Merlin, Bricorama or Castorama, according to the latest figures from the Federation of DIY stores and home improvement (FMB).

ManoMano, which claims 20 million visits per month and 2,5 million active customers (having made a purchase in the past 12 months), recorded 400 million euros in transactions last year in France where it generates 75% of its turnover, its founders, AFP Christian Raisson and Philippe de Chanville, told AFP.

The company, which today employs 370 people, launched ManoManoPro, a platform dedicated to building professionals, this month.

"We have three areas of development: we are launching a new offer for artisans, but also new services to support our merchants and we are developing internationally which still only represents 25% of our activity. We will recruit 100 people to serve this strategy "explained AFP Christian Raisson.

"You don't have to be American or Chinese" like Amazon or Alibaba to break into online business, says Philippe de Chanville, "we want to create a European giant with French roots".

ManoMano provides the 1.800 merchants present on its site (including 1.000 in France) with a logistics platform and services (invoicing, sales optimization tools, data).

Located on two sites in Paris, but also in Bordeaux and Barcelona, ​​the company wants to allow its European merchants to "make between 200 and 300 million euros in business volume" outside their country of origin.