Zoopla founder Alex Chesterman is among a group of investors to back an Instagram-friendly decorating start-up that has raised around £15.5m to fund its expansion.
Chesterman, among the key early backers of Lick, has put money into the latest round, which values the firm at £50m.
Launched by entrepreneurs Lucas London, 35, and Sam Bradley, 30, last year, Lick sells paint, wallpaper and blinds direct to consumers.
The start-up has cashed in on the pandemic home improvement boom, building up 165,000 orders.
Last year, Lick, which is looking to expand globally, released a range of paint in collaboration with made.com.
“It’s been a fascinating time to launch,” London told the press. “There have been some really strong tailwinds for the business as the focus has moved so much on to the home with remote working. We’re going to enter a golden era for home decor.”
Chesterman was recently included in the Sunday Times Rich List for the first time.
He has an estimated net worth of £750m, placing him as the 215th wealthiest person in the UK.
Chesterman, who founded Zoopla in 2007, now heads up car business Cazoo, which is the third successful tech firm that he has built up.
In 2018 he sold Zoopla for £2bn to the US private-equity group Silver Lake. He pocketed at least £200m from selling stakes in the property portal over the years.
His first fortune came from Lovefilm, the DVD-by-mail service. Chesterman received £20m when it was sold to Amazon in 2011 for £200m.
Earlier this year Chesterman, who gained an economics degree, sold shares in Cazoo worth £100m. This was just before press reports revealed that he had appointed bankers to work up a float valuing Cazoo at £5bn.
Comments (3)
Stick your head between them and go Blbr, Blbr, Blbr?
I’m not sure why we need telling again how much money Alex Chesterman has, is the intention that we’ll be told again and again and again until we’re impressed?
Being part of the story of his bank balance I can look at this from a different perspective, he bought what I built so I can take a satisfaction knowing I built something worthwhile, but I can also look at the failure too and feel some regret that was built hasn’t been allowed to achieve the things it could.
A limited few people have benefited financially from the deals that were done but the opportunity for real good to be done has been postponed longer than it should.
Robert, I have a question – Does he ever smile?
It’s a look, I’m sure he finds something that gives him pleasure.
That said if I had the opportunity he had with the loyal customer bases of Vebra, Core, CFP, Jupix and Expert agents; an utter monopoly of agencies in newsletter, area manager easy reach and the failed to overtake Rightmove I’d look that glum