Amsterdam-based Haaven, a homebuilding platform, announced on Tuesday that it has secured €1.1M in a pre-seed funding round led by Speedinvest.
Others, including Dutch VC firm Golden Egg Check and notable angel investors, including Quintin Schevernels (ex-CEO of Funda), Mike de Boer (ex-CFO of Knab), Eric Klaassen (co-founder of Crisp), Erik Nieuwenhuis (Founder of 12Build) Andre Grimbergen (co-founder of Albelli; founder of WONDR), and Paolo Moresco (Italian family office), also participated.
Fund utilisation
The Dutch company will use the funds to hire tech, product, sales, and technical support staff as it expands into its initial markets, Italy and the Netherlands.
Throwing light on expanding its operations to Silicon Canals, Dédé, CEO and co-founder, says, “Besides the fact that we are Amsterdam-based, The Netherlands has a significant demand for new homes, needing 100,000 to be built yearly, but with limited land available.
Additionally, there is a growing trend for building extra spaces in backyards. Over 2.5 million Dutch households have enough room to add an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) in their backyard.”
Currently, the Dutch company caters to the need by providing spaces that can often be built without permits. These spaces can be used as tiny homes, care homes, or garden offices.
“This approach allows us to meet the demand for additional living spaces while helping homeowners make the most of their available land,” continues Dédé.
Since its launch in Italy this February, Haaven has started building spaces for its first customers. Italy was prioritised since the land availability is much higher compared to the Netherlands, making construction more affordable and accessible to a larger audience.
However, if everything goes well, the company might expand to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, the UK, and the US in the future, according to Dede.
“We won’t consider expanding further until we can confidently say we have achieved product-market fit in these regions and have developed a scalable construction model,” clarifies Dédé.
Simplifying home building journey
Led by Dédé, Haaven connects architects, engineers, and prefab builders to help customers bring their homes to life by guiding them throughout the process.
“Our initial vision was simple: making the construction industry easier and more transparent for customers looking to build a new space. We knew from personal experience how frustrating and unclear the process can be when dealing with builders and architects,” explains Dédé.
Unlike American company Boxabl, which offers ready-made homes with a lack of personal touch and flexibility, customers can choose a design from Haaven’s collection or collaborate with an architect for a custom design project.
The platform then generates an instant quote and connects the customer with the appropriate builders. From there, Haaven oversees the entire process, ensuring support for the customer and accountability for the construction companies.
“Our vision is an ecosystem where everyone wins. Where customers have a seamless, enjoyable experience and builders can thrive. By focusing on what customers need and working together with the industry, we’re transforming how people build their dream spaces,” he explains.
Birth of Haaven
The Amsterdam-based Haaven is on a mission to streamline the complex homebuilding industry.
Elaborating on the motive behind founding Haaven, Dédé says, “I’ve always been passionate about architecture, and as a kid, I believed I would one day become one myself. But, what truly drives me is the sheer importance of our homes—I can’t really think of a more significant ‘product’ in our lives.”
“With Haaven, I saw an opportunity to create a platform that addresses both the functional and emotional aspects of our living spaces. Working on something so vital and meaningful every day is my greatest motivation,” adds Dédé.
Early challenges
According to Dede, the team faced challenges in various areas, such as defining focus, establishing a unique value proposition, understanding the core customer base, and effectively allocating resources.
“Part of the difficulty is that committing to a smaller idea exposes flaws more clearly, while a bigger, vaguer story can create the illusion of success. Every day, we work to focus more and eliminate clutter. This will likely remain a challenge, but it’s essential for our growth,” he adds.
Sustainability and efficiency
Haaven offers a simple, user-friendly experience while focusing on sustainability and efficiency, claims the company.
Explaining how it manages to do so, Dédé says, “Ensuring our spaces are carbon-neutral starts with the materials we use. All the wood in our spaces, particularly pine and spruce, captures more CO2 during its lifetime than is emitted during production. This principle of carbon capture is central to our sustainability efforts.”
Each home is designed to be carbon neutral and completed in just 15 weeks.
“By carefully selecting the facility best suited for each project, we make sure our customer’s new home is delivered at cost and on time,” he explains.
By using wood in prefabrication, they reduce carbon emissions and increase productivity.
Partnerships
Haaven leverages its expanding database of construction companies to match customers with builders that best meet their specific needs.
Currently, Haaven partners with builders across Scandinavia, Italy, Estonia, and The Netherlands, each offering different competencies.
Shedding light on partnerships, Haaven’s CEO explains, “We have a thorough process for selecting and vetting our partners. First, we assess the producer’s overall capacity to ensure they can handle our workload. We then delve into their past performance, examining the number and location of homes they’ve built and speaking with past clients to get a comprehensive picture of their service quality, not just the product.”
The company also looks for European and national certifications, which are particularly crucial in countries like The Netherlands and Italy, where national laws are stricter than EU standards.
“While the process takes a lot of time to complete per builder, each builder can deliver tens to hundreds of homes per year. Hence, we can prioritise quality over quantity, and ensure we have the right builders for the specific customers, designs, and regions we focus on,” he adds.
Plans
In the coming months, Haaven plans to roll out architectural designs from some of the largest architectural firms in Europe.
Additionally, the company is set to focus on two things — providing a great customer experience and delivering gorgeous designs.
“By excelling in these areas, we believe we can significantly enhance the homebuilding process for our customers,” he reveals.
The company is also exploring other crucial aspects such as financing, renovations, and various parts of the homebuilding and home-owning journey. However, their primary focus at present is perfecting design and customer experience.
Hiring
Currently, the Dutch company is focused on hiring for products (software, digital design, and marketing) and customer success (sales, partner relations, and technical service).
According to Dédé, the company prioritises hiring locally, in The Netherlands, as it believes that building a high-performance culture requires spontaneous, in-person interactions, not just scheduled Zoom meetings.
At present, Haaven has hired a few people in both product and customer success domains.
Dédé believes that working in a pioneering startup is tough and requires a specific type of personality. The most valuable traits for the team are being both extremely driven to achieve and perfectionist, says the CEO of Haaven
“Incorporating driven perfectionists is crucial as they thrive on the freedom to experiment and full ownership of their work, which traditional corporations often cannot offer. They also value being surrounded by great people to learn from and support. The best candidates show their concern for both their growth and the success of others already during the first interview.”
Haaven’s work culture
According to Dede, Haaven’s work culture revolves around — ownership, freedom, and improvisation.
“We don’t aspire to be just another corporate entity. Instead, we believe the best products, teams, and brands are crafted with care. This requires attention to detail, love for the product, and a dedication to excellence, not just making money,” he adds.
When it comes to their work environment, the company prioritise hiring for cultural fit, says Dede.
“Finally, freedom and ownership only work if everyone can speak their minds, no matter their role. We believe that everyone’s opinion counts and that titles and hierarchies are burdensome and unhelpful in creating a great team and awesome product,” he concludes.
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