Homeis raises $12 million to help online immigrant communities
The New York and Tel Aviv, Israel-based company Homeis, a culture network for local, foreign-born communities, announced its $12 million Series A funding round. The mission is create a better internet for immigrants, and help 250 million immigrants in foreign-born communities around the world. The round was led by Canaan and Spark Capital.
Ran Harnevo, former president of video for media company Oath, and Hanan Laschover, former CEO of AOL Israel, in 2017 teamed up to launch Homeis in 2017. It is the first digital platform for foreign-born communities around the world. Homeis currently serves “hundreds of thousands” of Indian, Israeli, French, and other communities domestically.
The fresh capital will enable the company to expand its services to serve and empower the 250 million immigrants around the world. The platform will expand to serve all immigrant communities in the U.S. and across the globe, starting with Mexicans and other Latino communities in the U.S. in 2019.
“Empowering immigrants is a personal mission, one which we believe is timely and important,” said Ran Harnevo, Homeis Co-founder and CEO. “We are thrilled to have the support of our investors and are committed to supporting immigrants wherever they are, making technology work for them, and fulfilling their very special needs.”
Each new user logs in and answers two simple questions: what country are you from originally and where do you live right now. By answering, the user is immediately welcomed into his or her community. From there, users have access to social and utility-based connections, find new friends, relationships and jobs, chat and network to advice on how to find the right lawyers, doctors or restaurants and can get recommendations for local services and events. All content is created and vetted by the community, based on its shared culture.
The platform is backed by Abstract VC, The Chernin Group, Samsung Next, Reddit Co-founder Alexis Ohanian, AOL’s former CEO Tim Armstrong, Taboola CEO Adam Singolda, and others, making it uniquely positioned to serve the growing immigrant population.