If you’ve been around the Portland startup community for any amount of time, you realize that many of the startups in our midst generally have a significant period of time between their founding date and when they experience a liquidity event like acquisition or private equity. (Or I guess there’s always on IPO. But seriously, who am I kidding?) Suffice it to say, “overnight success” is not a term that has much traction here.
From my vantage, it’s not uncommon for many Portland companies to spend a decade or more on this journey. Yet every once in a while, a Portland company manages to exit more rapidly. Meridian. AppThwack. And now Streem. (Fun fact: This marks the second fast exit for Streem founder Ryan Fink, who also sold prior startup OnTheGo Platforms fairly quickly — by Portland standards — as well.)
Founded roughly two and half years ago, Streem focused on making a practical application of augmented reality technology. Specifically for the DIY home repair market. They raised some money. Made an acquisition of their own. And won an award or two. And all of that made them super attractive to Frontdoor.
“I am extremely excited about Frontdoor’s acquisition of Streem. Not only will it accelerate our work to transform the service experience for homeowners and reduce costs, it will create unique opportunities for new revenue streams across a variety of new channels,” said Rex Tibbens, president and CEO of Frontdoor. “This technology is a perfect fit for our core home service plan business and for our future On Demand customers. Over time, we will use Streem’s in-home augmented reality across our platform to deliver a superior experience to our more than 2 million customers and our network of over 16,000 contractor firms.”
Terms of the deal were not disclosed but we do know that it was a mix of cash and equity in the publicly traded company.
According to Malia Spencer, “Backers include local investors Archivist Capital, Oregon Venture Fund, Portland Seed Fund, Flying Fish and Rogue Venture Partners. Other investors are Betaworks Ventures, General Catalyst, GGV Capital and Greycroft.”
For more, read the press release from Streem and Frontdoor. Or read the coverage in The Oregonian.
Another fun fact: I now have “Islands in the Stream” stuck in my head. And now you do, too. You’re welcome.
