Houzz

Home remodeling marketplace / proptech softwareUSA

New to Unitard

✂️ Markdown

Peak $4 BillionToday

~-99%

from peak

🦄
Became a unicorn
Oct 2014
📈
Peak valuation
$4 Billion ’17
💔
Became a Unitard
2022
💸
Last valuation
~$40M

Current status

Private and operating; co-founder Alon Cohen CEO since January 2024, with Adi Tatarko as executive chair; no IPO, sale or recapitalization announced

The rise & fall

10 moments · 2009–2026

The key moments, with employee sentiment along the way.

Feb 2009

Founded by Adi Tatarko and Alon Cohen

The co-founders start an online photo site for home design after struggling to communicate their own remodeling vision; Cohen codes the first version himself.

Wikipedia

Oct 1 ’14

$165M Series D led by Sequoia at a reported $2.3B$2.3B

DST Global and T. Rowe Price join existing backers; the Wall Street Journal reports the $2.3B valuation, and Houzz opens a product marketplace in beta.

VentureBeat

Jun 9 ’17

The peak: $400M round at about $4B$4B

Houzz confirms the raise; Iconiq Capital leads, and multiple reports put the valuation at around $4B, nearly double the 2014 figure.

TechCrunch

Apr 21 ’20

155 layoffs and executive pay cuts

About 10% of staff go as COVID-19 hits the renovation pros who buy Houzz subscriptions; the company had cut about 10% in early 2019 as well.

TechCrunch

Oct 22 ’21

Hires Goldman Sachs for an IPO that never comes

Reuters sources say Houzz is aiming to list in early 2022, market conditions permitting; it stays private.

Reuters via Euronews

Jun 30 ’22

T. Rowe marks Houzz shares down 95% — joins the Unitard Club

T. Rowe Price New Horizons carries both Houzz common and preferred at $0.41 a share, against $8.06 at the end of 2019.

SEC NPORT-P

Dec 20 ’22

About 95 more layoffs in the US and Israel

Houzz cites macroeconomic conditions in home improvement; headcount falls to about 1,100 from 1,800 in 2019.

Globes

Jan 1 ’24

Co-founder Alon Cohen takes over as CEO

Adi Tatarko, CEO for about 13 years, becomes executive chair; Cohen had been president since the start.

Houzz

Jun 30 ’25

T. Rowe marks its Houzz stake to zero

After 3 cents a share in March 2025, both share classes are carried at $0, with the share count unchanged; no explanation has been made public.

SEC NPORT-P

2022–26

From the inside · Glassdoor reviews, 2022–26

Glassdoor reviews described recurring layoff rounds, unclear direction from leadership and repeated talk of an IPO that did not happen, though many praised colleagues. The average rating held near 3.7 through 2024, then slipped to 3.5 in 2025 and about 2.6 in 2026.

Today

Still private — the funds keep marking

T. Rowe Price New Horizons Fund, Inc. marks it at $0.03/share · -100% from its peak mark · as of Mar 2025

SEC NPORT-P

💬 entries paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗; dated facts carry their source.

How it happened

Houzz, founded in Palo Alto in 2009 by Adi Tatarko and Alon Cohen, grew from a home-design photo site into a remodeling marketplace and software maker for renovation professionals. A Sequoia-led $165M round in October 2014 valued it at $2.3B, the Wall Street Journal reported.

In June 2017 Iconiq Capital led a $400M round that reports put at about $4B. Houzz cut staff in 2019, 2020 and 2022, and an IPO it reportedly prepared with Goldman Sachs in 2021 never came.

Mutual-fund filings show T. Rowe Price marked its Houzz common and preferred shares from $8.06 in December 2019 to 3 cents by March 2025, about 99% lower, and to zero from June 2025. The company has not publicly explained the write-down. Cohen became CEO in January 2024.

Mutual-fund markdowns

3 funds · SEC NPORT-P

How U.S. mutual funds fair-value this still-private company in their quarterly SEC filings.

Per-share mark from peak

-100%

T. Rowe Price New Horizons Fund, Inc. · Common

$6.92 → $0.03

as of Mar 2025

Fund	Class	$/sh	From peak	As of
T. Rowe Price New Horizons Fund, Inc.	Common	$0.03	-100%	Mar 2025
T. Rowe Price Communications & Technology Fund, Inc.	Common	$0.03	-100%	Dec 2024
T. Rowe Price Communications & Technology Fund, Inc.		$0.41	-94%	Jun 2022
T. Rowe Price New Horizons Fund, Inc.		$1.99	-71%	Dec 2021
T. Rowe Price Communications & Technology Fund	Common	$0.03	—	Mar 2025

Source: SEC EDGAR Form NPORT-P (Level-3 fair-value marks). Per-share marks reflect the fund’s own valuation of a specific share class and aren’t a company-wide valuation. Last refreshed Oct 2026.

Source: VentureBeat (Oct 1, 2014), citing the Wall Street Journal: $165M Series D led by Sequoia at $2.3B. TechCrunch (June 9, 2017): Houzz confirmed a $400M raise, Iconiq leading per Recode, valuation of about $4B per multiple reports (Bloomberg sources); the drop is keyed to that $4B. SEC NPORT-P, T. Rowe Price New Horizons Fund: Houzz common (877,600 sh) and Series D convertible preferred (2,632,810 sh), share counts unchanged 2019-2026, both marked $8.06/sh (Dec 31, 2019), $3.21 (Sept 2021), $0.41 (June 2022), $0.08 common (Dec 2022), $0.03 common (Mar 31, 2025), then $0 for both classes from June 30, 2025; T. Rowe Communications & Technology Fund marks match. dropPct 99 = 1 - 0.03/8.06 (99.6%, rounded down), measured from the Dec-2019 high mark, which postdates the 2017 round. Globes (Dec 20, 2022): about 95 layoffs, 8% of staff, headcount down from 1,800 (2019) to 1,100. Reuters via Euronews (Oct 22, 2021): Goldman Sachs hired for an IPO. Houzz press release (Nov 15, 2023): Cohen named CEO from Jan 1, 2024. No public explanation of the zero marks has been reported.

Founders

Adi Tatarko
co-founder & CEO (2009–2023, led at peak); executive chair since 2024
Still there — Co-Founder and Executive ChairLinkedIn ↗
Alon Cohen
co-founder, president & CEO (from 2024)
Still there — Co-Founder and CEOLinkedIn ↗