Focus
FTC lawsuit: Roommate-finding app Roomster bought fake reviews and featured scam listings
CBS News – August 30
California, the Federal Trade Commission, and five other states filed a lawsuit on August 30 against the rental listing app Roomster for duping mostly low-income and student renters with fake reviews and phony listings. Roomster, an app for finding a roommate or a room for rent, allegedly purchased thousands of fake positive reviews to lure renters into paying for a subscription and claimed its listings were "verified" and "authentic" when in fact they were full of scams, according to California Attorney General Rob Bonta's office.
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News
WeWork launches global return-to-work program
Commercial Property Executive - September 9
Flexible space provider WeWork is teaming up with 11 cities, including Los Angeles and Seattle, and organizations to help businesses create and implement hybrid workspaces. As part of the program, WeWork will provide the city partners and organizations key data and insights into how their cities are returning to work and support each city’s specific dynamics, industries, and needs. The goal is to create resources for cities and businesses of all sizes so they can analyze the data and make informed decisions about future workplace issues.
Flexible, shorter-term apartment startups gain traction
TechCrunch – August 25
Startups looking to make it easier for people to rent apartments on a flexible, short-term basis are gaining momentum thanks in part to the rise of remote work. In one of the most recent examples, Landing, a startup that seeks to help customers to rent a fully furnished apartment on its platform for as short as one month, has secured fresh funding: $75 million in equity funding and another $50 million in debt.
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Deals
Adam Neumann has a new backer
The New York Times - August 15
Adam Neumann, the founder of WeWork, has a new venture — and a surprising backer. Neumann’s new company Flow wants to transform the residential rental real estate market. Notably, Andreessen Horowitz, the prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm that was an early investor in everything from Facebook to Airbnb, is investing about $350 million in Flow. Neumann has purchased more than 3,000 apartment units in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Atlanta, and Nashville. His aim is to rethink the housing rental market by creating a branded product with consistent service and community features.
Guesty raises $170M in Series E funding
FinSMEs – August 16
Guesty, a Walnut-based property management platform for the short-term rental and hospitality industry, raised $170 million in Series E funding. The round was led by Apax Digital Funds, MSD Partners, Sixth Street Growth, Viola Growth, and Flashpoint.
CBRE commits to VTS with $100M investment
PlaceTech – September 6
Starting in the U.S., CBRE will roll out VTS as the tech platform of choice for its agency leasing and property management teams. CBRE led VTS‘s latest funding round, providing $100 million of the $125 million that the rapidly expanding, multi-product PropTech business raised. Other investors include BentallGreenOak, AmTrust, Brookfiled Ventures, and Insight Venture Partners.
Deal management platform Dealpath raises $43M Series C
The Real Deal – September 8
Dealpath, a Blackstone-backed provider of deal-flow management and analytics software, raised $43 million in a Series C funding round led by Morgan Stanley. Founded in 2014 by Sroka, Kenter Wu, and Andy Lee, Dealpath aims to help real estate owners, developers, and lenders manage acquisitions through cloud-based software that provides users with real-time market data.
Historic shift from buying to renting spurs RentSpree’s $17.3M Series B
Commercial Observer – August 29
RentSpree, an end-to-end rental management software provider, has closed $17.3 million in Series B financing, bringing the startup’s total amount raised to nearly $28 million. The funding round was led by Green Visor Capital. RentSpree has focused on addressing the small rental landlord market, rather than large institutional owners.
After shutting down home-buying business, Zillow Group partners with rival Opendoor
GeekWire – August 4
Zillow Group has announced a partnership with Opendoor that allows homesellers on Zillow’s platform to request an instant cash offer from Opendoor. Zillow last year decided to shut down its own iBuyer business, Zillow Offers, marking a surprising end to an ambitious home-flipping bet that resulted in a $405 million write-down and a 25% workforce reduction.
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