Simon Phelan, the Dublin-born founder of Hometree, started his latest fundraising round last May for his fast-growing British-based residential energy services challenger brand. Hometree’s biggest competitor, Homeserve, had just been acquired for $5 billion by Canadian alternative asset manager Brookfield, so Phelan was optimistic he could close the deal before his wedding last August to Cristina. “The Homeserve sale had set a benchmark multiple for my category for investors,” he recalled. “We didn’t have a 2021 valuation burdening us with valuation altitude sickness and we had the wind in our sails growth-wise.” Phelan didn’t close the round by his wedding…