This week's funding and investment roundup brings you the latest on proptech companies around the world getting the capital they need to succeed.
Real estate technology platform Truva has raised $3 million in funding from investors led by Stellaris Venture Partners.
Other investors include Myntra founder Mukesh Bansal, Curefoods founder Ankit Nagori and Groww Lalit Keshre, founder at Groww.
Truva—which only offers fully renovated properties priced according to the firm's proprietary real transaction data (TruIQ)—says it will use the funds to expand its team, raise debt for working capital, and scale its operations to other areas in India within the next year.
The platform, founded in 2023, provides detailed property listings with extensive insights and support for buyers, including help with financing, paperwork, and registration.
User-friendly features include a natural light score, noise ratings, 3D tours, and high-quality photos and videos.
Puneet Arora, founder and CEO at Truva, said:
"With our approach of prioritising buyer experiences, we aim to reduce the overall complexities involved in real estate transactions, thus accelerating the home-buying process."
Ritesh Banglani, partner at Stellaris Venture Partners, said:
"With rising disposable incomes and rapid urbanisation, housing demand will continue to expand. To realise the potential of this growing market, we believe that there is a need for significant improvements in the buying experience. In Truva, we found a team deeply committed to understanding customer insights and building a product that offers an unparalleled home-buying experience."
Truva says it sells properties in an average of 19 days, compared to the national average of 9 months.
Inspirato has undergone major changes as part of a $10 million equity financing round led by One Planet Group.
Payam Zamani, founder and CEO of One Planet Group, will become the new CEO and chairman of Inspirato, replacing incumbent Eric Grosse who spent less than 12 months at the helm.
The firm also says it will implement initiatives to reduce costs by approximately $25 million annually, including a 15% reduction in workforce and terminating the leases for poorly performing stock.
The layoffs will be the third round of job cuts since January 2023.
Inspirato will receive $4.6 million cash immediately with a further $5.4 million coming as soon as September 2024.
Inspirato offers a subscription-based luxury stays model across global destinations. All its stock is privately listed and all stays include itinerary planning and concierge services.
The firm is NASDAQ listed but is under a conditional extension by Nasdaq’s hearings panel to continue its listing on the Nasdaq Stock Market, after "failing to maintain minimum market value" for public shares before July 2024.
The firm generated revenues of $67 million in Q2, at an EBITDA loss of $9.2 million.
EliseAI has raised a Series D funding round worth $75 million at an updated valuation of over $1 billion.
The round was led by Sapphire Ventures, with participation from existing investors Navitas Capital, Point72 Private Investments, DivcoWest Ventures, and Koch Real Estate Investments.
EliseAI is the industry's leading property management AI assistant with multiple use cases; using conversational AI to manage communications across multiple channels; a CRM solution; property management and tour scheduling; call answering; resident services and rent payment reminders.
Minna Song, Co-Founder and CEO of EliseAI, said:
"Essential industries like housing and healthcare are facing serious operational challenges and financial strain. Our mission to tackle these problems authentically resonates with everyone at our company. We are committed to improving how these industries operate, making them more sustainable and accessible."
Cathy Gao, Partner at Sapphire Ventures and new EliseAI board, said:
"EliseAI’s multimodal AI platform has revolutionized customer interactions in the housing industry, we believe setting the standard for how purpose-built AI can deliver clear, measurable results with high accuracy and compliance to industry regulations."
EliseAI says it has grown its Annual Recurring Revenue by more than 2.5x since its Series C in 2023 and partnered with 70% of the top 50 multifamily owners and operators and leading single-family rental companies. The firm now covers 1 out of every 12 multifamily apartment units in the United States.
The New York-based startup also operates an AI assistant for the healthcare industry.
The Indonesian tech-enabled brokerage, Jendela360 has received an undisclosed amount in funding from the Japanese venture capital firm W inc.
Jendela360 describes itself as Indonesia's largest online-to-offline property tech platform that streamlines the rental & sales process. The platform offers end-to-end discovery and buyer and rental brokerage services. The company plans to use the funds to expand its services away from its Jakarta base into other markets such as Surabaya and Bali.
Commenting on the raise, Jendela360's co-founder and CEO, Daniel Tanri Rannu said:
"The prop-tech market in Indonesia presents a vast opportunity, estimated at $80 billion. We're excited to witness Jendela's growth and expect it to emerge as a dominant player in the prop-tech space with the support of W fund."
The investment is part of a broader move to tap into the Indonesian market by the Tokyo-based early-stage specialist which also included investment in the social commerce startup Dagangan.
The Indonesian real estate portal Lamudi has received an undisclosed amount of strategic funding from Living Lab Ventures, the corporate VC division of a local real estate developer, Sinar Mas Land.
“This marks another milestone for LLV, as it reflects our strong belief in DCG and Lamudi’s capability to drive the largest tech-based ecosystem for the property technology industry in Indonesia, especially through strategic collaboration and integration within the Sinar Mas Land ecosystem,” said Bayu Seto, Partner of Living Lab Ventures.
“With the backing of Living Lab Ventures, we are poised to expand our operations and solidify our position as the leading real estate marketplace in Indonesia. This investment will enable us to further develop our platform, improve user experience, and provide unparalleled value to our customers,” stated Mart Polman, CEO of Lamudi Indonesia.
In Indonesia, Lamudi competes mainly with 99.co (owned by Singapore-based 99 Group) with PropertyGuru having pulled out of the market in 2023. The portal was acquired by the Australia-based Digital Classifieds Group in 2023 having previously been owned and operated by Dubai-based Dubizzle Group.
Sonder Holdings has entered into a licensing agreement with Marriott to add 9,000 of its apartment units to the Marriott Bonvoy brand. The partnership is designed to give Marriott more long-stay options in key global markets.
In addition, Sonder secured $43 million in preferred equity and $83 million in liquidity from its existing lenders. Following the announcement, Sonder’s shares more than doubled, rising to $5.50. Despite facing recent challenges, including the closure of 3,200 units, Sonder remains committed to its goal of long-term profitability.
New York City-based real estate business operating system Perchwell has raised $25 million in Series B financing in a round led by Lux Capital and further participation from Starwood Capital Group, Flex Capital, Stellar MLS, REcolorado MLS, and California Regional MLS (CRMLS).
Perchwell is a company that provides clean data and intelligent workflows for real estate professionals. It offers an MLS platform that integrates various data sources, tools, and systems and complies with RESO standards.
The company says it will use the funds to accelerate delivering best-in-class software to MLSs and brokerages in New York City and nationwide and focus on product development focusing on AI-related data and workflow enhancements.
Brendan Fairbanks, CEO at Perchwell, said in a press release:
"At Perchwell, we are elevating the way real estate agents convey value to their clients.
"We provide agents with powerful property-centric data in web and mobile platforms under a single seamless solution, empowering them to deliver accurate, precise guidance at a moment's notice.
"This financing will add fuel and speed to our expansion and broaden features of our platform, empowering agents as trusted advisors to their homebuyers and sellers. We are grateful for the support of Lux, our MLS partners, and all Series B investors."
Peter Hébert, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Lux Capital, commented:
"Real estate professionals still spend much of their time shuffling between disjointed MLS data repositories, search portals, and various other point solution.
"Perchwell is setting the new industry standard by bringing all that tooling into a complete and modern software platform. Agents nationwide have come to trust Perchwell to provide an indispensable competitive advantage in today's dynamic real estate market."
Perchwell previously raised a $15 million Series A round in 2021.
The Samolet Plus apartment solutions service, whose majority shareholder is the Samolet Group, has completed a pre-IPO raise worth approximately 825 million rubles, or USD 9.7 million. The firm says the placement of the additional shares attracted the maximum possible amount of investment.
Circa half of the placement volume came from institutional investors, with the funds set to strengthen its technological platform and scale its business faster, forecasting a 35% market share by 2026.
Dmitry Volkov, founder and chairman of the board of directors at Samolet Plus, commented:
"We are pleased to announce the successful completion of the collection of applications within the pre-IPO, and we thank all investors who took part in the transaction for their trust.
"The funds raised will allow the company to strengthen the technological platform and quickly increase the scale of the business. Today, our share of the real estate market is already about 10%, and by 2026, according to our forecasts, it will grow to 35%.
"I am grateful to our franchisees, agents, employees of Samolet Plus and Samolet, who became shareholders of the company at an early stage of the company's formation, because Samolet Plus has existed for only two years.
Finally, Volkov confirmed a stock market flotation for Samolet Plus:
"During the preparation and implementation of the transaction, we received an external assessment of the business, formulated an investment case for the company, heard important feedback from the investment community, thereby, in essence, starting preparations for an IPO, which could take place as early as late 2025 - early 2026.
"Following the best practices of openness and corporate governance, we will inform the market about all key events in the life of the company and maintain an active dialogue with investors."
Andrey Ivanenko, CEO at Samolet Group, said:
"Pre-IPO Samolet Plus shows that in the Samolet culture, it is possible to create a business with a capitalization of 20 billion rubles in just two years, which is 10% of the group's value.
"Next - an IPO on the Moscow Exchange. Samolet is consistently on the path of disclosing the value of non-development businesses, increasing the shareholder value of the entire group."
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