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New backer also participated in the financing, which brings San Francisco-based Zumper’s total funding since its 2012 inception to more than $150 million. and led the company’s $46 million in September 2018 (at which time the company had a pre-money valuation of $200 million, according to Crunchbase). The company has a long list of high-profile investors including , and .

, CEO and co-founder of Zumper, declined to disclose the company’s current valuation, saying only it is “a significant step up from our 2018 valuation.”

Zumper’s self-described mission is to make renting an apartment “as easy as booking a hotel.” The startup claims to be the largest privately held rental marketplace (in terms of users) in the United States. Last year, 67 million people used Zumper to find, list, or rent properties in the U.S. and Canada. Georgiades expects that number to climb to 80 million this year, saying he company helps advertise more than 1 million listings a month.

‘Airbnb for one-year leasing’

The residential real estate market space is a crowded one for sure, and Zumper competes with the likes of publicly traded .

For Georgiades, Zumper differentiates itself in that it helps people in all steps of the process, making it a true “end-to-end” marketplace.

For example, Zumper offers renters the ability to find, apply for and then book an apartment. They can also digitally pay their rent to their landlord. It also helps small landlords and multifamily properties with things like finding tenants, marketing and collecting rent.

The company makes money in two ways: Landlords pay to be at the top of its feed for more exposure, in a classic lead-generation model; and also pay Zumper to close leases. For example, if a landlord uses its tools to conduct a transaction, it pays Zumper a fee per transaction.

Georgiades declined to disclose revenue figures but said the company saw its “pretty sizeable” revenue rise by 100 percent year over year last year.

“We’re not going from a small number to a small number,” he told Crunchbase News.

Meanwhile, the company doubled its headcount to 200 compared to about 100 a year ago. Zumper’s employees are spread across offices in San Francisco, Scottsdale, New York, Chicago and Providence, Rhode Island.

Looking ahead, the company will use the new capital to grow its sales and engineering teams and invest in scaling its transactional tools. Currently, 90 percent of its audience finds Zumper organically, according to the company.

“Ultimately, we want to be the Airbnb for one-year leasing,” Georgiades said.

For , co-founder and managing partner of e.ventures, Zumper’s progress so far has been “striking.”

Yesterday, we wrote about a similar offering in the United Kingdom. London-based it had raised about $13 million. Goodlord’s SaaS (software as a service) platform aims to make the rental process smoother and more efficient for landlords, leasing agents and renters alike. It handles a wide range of services from contracts to references to payments.

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led the investment which also included participation from Dutch early-stage venture capital firm and London-based firm . The funding brings Goodlord’s since its 2014 inception to about $33 million.

The news is especially meaningful considering the company saw its CEO depart and laid off nearly 40 employees just over two years ago, according to .

Co-founder started the company in 2014 after becoming frustrated with the inefficiencies in the tenancy process. (co-founder of , founding director of another proptech company, ) took the helm as CEO in early 2018.

Goodlord’s SaaS (software as a service) platform aims to make the rental process smoother and more efficient for landlords, leasing agents and renters alike. It handles a wide range of services from contracts to references to payments.

In its own words, Goodlord’s mission is to make renting simple and transparent for everyone involved.

The company certainly seems to have rebounded since that turbulence two years ago. COO Mundy said Goodlord has seen “the number of tenancies it processes” accelerate from about 20 percent to more than 90 percent year over year in 2019. Without providing specifics, Goodlord said its number of users doubled over the last year. Meanwhile, headcount more than doubled to 97 from about 47 a year ago. The company declined to comment on annual recurring revenue.

Over the past year, Goodlord has introduced new products and platform updates. It also has expanded its service to cover corporate lets, brought in extended insurance provisions and introduced virtual banking technology for customers.

Looking ahead

Goodlord plans to use its new capital to double its client base and expand its suite of products. It also plans to hire more engineering, product and customer-facing staff.

Julian Rowe from Latitude Ventures, who is joining the Goodlord board, said in a written statement that the startup has the potential to be “one of the UK’s most successful property technology companies.

“For many people under the age of 40 the rental market is the housing market and Goodlord is passionate about modernising it for millions of people,” he added. “By creating software that increases the professionalism of letting agents and reduces the stress of finding and securing a home to rent, Goodlord is supplying an essential service to meet a key need.”

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