Buildiro.com, a digital marketplace for tradespeople, builders, and DIY enthusiasts, has launched a crowdfunding investment round.

Buildiro aims to raise at least £300,000 to boost affiliate sales, strengthen search-engine algorithms, and grow site traffic. Funds will also support the development of new features, include a returning customer “favourites” list, product price histories, related search results, an API integration for merchants and developers to access a real-time product data, and the Buildiro Eco-Index, which will rank materials based on environmental and carbon footprints.

“Crowdfunding is a wonderful way to grow our brand loyalty and position us for long-term success,” says Luke Polach, Buildiro founder and CEO. “The construction industry is one of the last to digitize, and Buildiro was created to close the technological gap.”

Developed by Polach, a former UK-based contractor, Buildiro.com uses affiliate marketing to connect consumers with merchants. Like Amazon for construction materials, Buildiro.com makes it easy to search across inventories of participating merchants to compare costs and product availability. Results can be filtered by brand, colour, size or price, and sales are completed on the affiliate merchant’s site.

With more than 500,000 products in its database, Buildiro.com aims to ensure better online visibility for merchants, and more efficient access to materials, tools, and supplies for buyers.

Buildiro says it has secured numerous rounds of seed funding for its solution and has created new commercial opportunities for dozens of UK merchants. More than 40 of the UK’s leading materials suppliers are already part of the Buildiro affiliate programme ­– including online retailers B&Q, Wickes, Mano Mano UK, Robert Dyas, and Travis Perkins.

Since the crowfunding campaign, which is hosted by online private investment platform Seedrs, has started, 14 new merchants have joined Buildiro.