Angie's List Rebrands As Angi

The online marketplace Angie's List has announced it is rebranding as Angi and its parent company, ANGI Homeservices Inc. ANGI, is changing its name to Angi Inc.

What Happened: Angie’s List launched in 1995 as a resource for residents in Columbus, Ohio, seeking local contractors. ANGI Homeservices Inc. was created in 2017 following the merger between Angie's List and HomeAdvisor, a rival online marketplace. HomeAdvisor retained its separate identity after the merger, but will now be formally known as HomeAdvisor, powered by Angi.

The rebranding will include a new logo, an upgraded website and an updated app that will enable users to instantly purchase pre-priced jobs, choose from financing options and pay vendors.

“We want people to feel confident taking care of small tasks, and brave enough to take on big home projects,” said Oisin Hanrahan, CEO of Angi. “Our new site and consumer app will help them do that by making it easier than ever to take care of your home.”

Why It Matters: In announcing the rebranding, Angi acknowledged it was seeking “to transform an untapped $500 billion market in which the majority of business still gets done through word of mouth.”

Not acknowledged, however, was Angi’s competition from deep-pocketed rivals including Porch Group Inc PRCH and Yelp Inc YELP, plus privately-owned competitors Thumbtack and Houzz.

The company could benefit from some increased mojo: Despite $359.3 million in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2020, the company posted a loss of $3.48 million.

For the fiscal year 2020, the company generated $1.4 billion in revenue, but saw a $6.4 million loss. In the earnings call to announce these results, CEO Brandon Ridenour admitted Angi was impacted by a COVID-19 pandemic-induced decline in advertising by small businesses coupled with declining use by consumers anchored at home during the health crisis. But he also highlighted a 30% increase in Angi’s sales force to create a new jumpstart.

“We're off to a great start. And the benefits of those incremental sales reps will accrue over the course of the year to provide more capacity," he said. "The other thing is just when and how does the spend from our existing customers normalize or get back to previous levels ... We believe we can reaccelerate our traditional business, whether that happens or not and irrespective of the timing of it. If it does happen, it will provide obviously a nice tailwind.”

At last check, Angi was trading at $16.14, which is closer to its 52-week high of $19.17 and far from its 52-week low of $4.35.

(Photo by Greyson Joralemon on Unsplash)