I’m Demetrius Gray, founder of Captain. I’m proud to share that as a company, we’ve secured a total of $104M in financing, led by world-class investors to accelerate the deployment of capital to contractors.
How it Started
Growing up in Kentucky, I witnessed the devastating impact natural disasters such as hail storms and tornadoes brought to surrounding communities. When I started WeatherCheck, a meteorology-focused online platform used to monitor housing properties for damages caused by hail and other major weather events, I was further inspired to create Captain.
Homeowners are frequently displaced for months at a time while their homes are repaired after getting hit by natural disaster. For storms like Hurricane Katrina or Sandy, the average primary recovery period is 14 months, with smaller storms still requiring up to five months for repairs and financing. After seeing how long it look for people to recover their homes fully, I decided to start Captain to provide relief and simplify the process of rebuilding homes.
How We Help Homeowners
As the largest pool of capital in the U.S. to buy property insurance claims and fund disaster recovery costs, Captain is on a mission to get families back into their homes faster by directing the necessary funds to the relevant groups - up to six times faster than before.
We help homeowners by advancing money to their contractors to pay for materials, labor, and feels associated with repairs. In doing so, neither homeowners nor contractors need to work with - orwait for - insurance and mortgage companies to send and process payments before beginning work.
Bridging the Gap Between Policyholders, Contractors and Insurance Companies
The last thing anyone wants to worry about after a disaster is the logistics or rebuilding a home. Now, it’s more simple than ever to find the right resource to help you navigate repairing your home. We vet and approve policyholders contractor choices while ensuring that the cost to homeowners won’t exceed their deductible.
We’re ushering the contractor industry into a modernized, digital-first business - an easier way of doing business that instantly connects contractors with consumers. We work out all those little details on your behalf so that you can focus on what matters most.
Where We Stand Today
So far, we’ve been able to open up the company for users to sign up for our services on our website. Within 10 days of our site going live, we have 300 contractors waitlisted and 98 Approved. Our services will help move the contracting industry forward into our digital age.
Our Plans for the Future
Soon homeowners will be able to seamlessly hire contractors through our platform. And to keep up with the uptick in natural disasters due to climate volatility, we’re aiming to expand our company’s sales and engineering teams, including hiring key positions such as vice president of engineering, head of growth, and head of talent.
As we look ahead, we look forward to expanding our team and our reach to keep up with climate volatility. While we plan to expand all over the country, we are focused on Denver, Dallas, and Chicago this year since they are the biggest hail targets. We will launch Captain in locations corresponding with seasonality.
Ready to Come Aboard?
If you’re a home repair contractor, you can schedule a meeting with a member of the Captain team to see how we can get you the funds you need for your project in less time, streamline your business paperwork with our legal experts, and remove barriers to growing your home restoration business.
If you’re a homeowner, we also have resources available to help you hire an approved and vetted home repair contractor and options for making your deductible payment more do-able.
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