Apartment List, A San Francisco-based apartment rental marketplace, has raised $50 million in a series C round of funding led by Passport Capital, with participation from Allen & Company LLC, Canaan Partners, Matrix Partners, Industry Ventures, Quantum Partners LP, Tenaya Capital, and WTI.
Founded in 2011, Apartment List is a cross-platform app that connects renters with landlords across the U.S., through asking questions, manual filters, and a visual interface that leans on photos and maps.
Prior to now, Apartment List had raised around $60 million in funding, and with its latest cash injection it said that it plans to grow its property inventory beyond large apartment blocks and to “include smaller apartment buildings and single-family homes,” while it added that it aims to double its headcount in 2018.
“Apartment List exists to make sure renters have an equal place in today’s housing market,” noted Apartment List cofounder and CEO John Kobs. “Renters deserve the same personalized, seamless, white-glove experience that buyers get. We’re innovating our marketplace and scaling our business to help people make better, smarter decisions about where they live and we won’t stop until we’ve won this market. This investment brings us one step closer to that goal.”
Over the past year, Apartment List said that it has grown the number of listings on its marketplace by 50 percent, with nearly 4 million properties now on its platform, which it said equates to 10 percent of U.S. rentals.
“We expect to help 1 out of every 64 renters that move this year in the US find a home,” added Chris Erickson, COO and cofounder at Apartment List. “By listening to the needs of renters, we plan continue improving the overall renting experience from first search to lease signing.”
It’s estimated that around 43 million U.S. households, or 37 percent of the overall homes, are renter-occupied — this equates to more than 110 million people. And with rental prices going sky-high, particularly in major conurbations, shared housing plays a key component in the overall rental market. A few months back, New York-based Roomi raised $11 million to grow its shared housing marketplace, while California-based HubHaus raised $1.4 million for a similar proposition.
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