Lifestyle website Brit + Co is once again expanding its growing DIY empire by acquiring Snapguide, a mobile service app that allows users to create and share step-by-step, how-to guides. The app’s technology will allow Brit & Co users to create their own DIY guides.
Financial terms for the deal are not being disclosed, but the acquisition comes weeks after Brit + Co raised $20 million in its latest funding round. The company, which was founded by former Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG) employee Brit Morin, revealed today that its most recent round was led by Intel Capital, whose investment is part of the firm’s newly announced Diversity Fund.
Other investors include Apple’s former VP of retail, Ron Johnson and DreamWorks’ head of retail and commerce, Jim Fielding. As part of the funding round, Intel’s Lisa Lambert will also join the company’s board.
The new funding will primarily be put towards building video content, including expansion of Brit & Co’s online classes, and towards creating an original video series.
Previously dubbed “Silicon Valley’s would-be Martha Stewart,” Morin launched her lifestyle startup in 2011. The company is a hybrid of online content and e-commerce. It features DIY tips, projects, recipes and sells craft kits called Brit Kits and other lifestyle merchandise, like jewelry and home decor items. Brit & Co’s audience is mostly women in their 20s and 30s.
In addition to the acquisition, the company also announced it was bringing on a host of advisers who are experts in content creation and the e-commerce industry, such Jon Steinberg (former president and COO of Buzzfeed), Susan Lyne (former CEO of Martha Stewart Omnimedia), as well as previously mentioned investors Johnson and Fielding.
Morin has often been the subject of ridicule in Silicon Valley over her startup’s high valuation and business plan. Despite the criticism, the entrepreneur is focused on building her business and taking on the $34 billion crafts and supplies industry. Morin says her site reaches around 12 million users per month, saw revenue triple year over year and is bringing in millions of dollars in revenue yearly.
Advertising has been lucrative for the business, and the company now has 100 advertisers on its roster, and an advertiser repeat rate of 75 percent, she said.
Brit & Co faces stiff competition from another craft startup called Darby Smart, which launched in 2013. The company sells DIY supplies and merchandise to a similar audience.
Before being acquired by Brit & Co, Snapguide previously raised $10 million in funding from a host of Silicon Valley investors, including her husband Dave Morin’s VC fund, Slow Ventures.
