United States / Greece: short term furnished apartment rental startup Blueground has raised $ 180 million in Series C funding, including $ 140 million in equity, from investors led by WestCap Group managing partner Laurence Tosi, giving the company a reported valuation of $ 750 million .
Tosi, previously Airbnb’s CFO and investor in Sonder, led the round with Geolo Capital, VentureFriends and Prime Ventures from billionaire John Pritzker. Blueground has also secured a $ 40 million credit facility from Silicon Valley Bank, according to Bloomberg.
Blueground plans to use the funding to expand its offering from more than 5,000 apartments in 15 cities around the world to 50 cities by 2025, as well as launches in places such as Miami, Madrid, Zurich and Berlin here. the end of this year.
Pritzker told Bloomberg: “Blueground is uniquely positioned to meet the growing need for flexibility in real estate as companies continue to delay back-to-office mandates. There is a huge opportunity here.
Meanwhile, Tom Gottlieb, co-founder and managing partner of Geolo Capital, will also join Blueground’s board of directors under the terms of the transaction.
Founded in 2013, Blueground rents its apartments for minimum stays of one month with a maximum lease of 12 months, although the company says the average rental stay is 4.5 months.
While Blueground’s occupancy rates in some cities fell to 88% at the start of the pandemic, the startup has seen them stabilize as it adapts to changing living and working habits, including launching its Blueground Pass to help clients living and working from anywhere.
To support its own employees, Blueground has also introduced a new flexible and innovative working model called Nomads, designed to give the employee the power to choose where they want to work. In an attempt to redefine the concept of ‘working from home’, the company introduced three flexible working models to meet the individual needs and preferences of employees: ‘Work from Anywhere’, ‘Short Assignment or long term ”and“ International transfer ”.
Chatzieleftheriou told Bloomberg: “More and more companies are giving employees the flexibility to choose where they want to live and work, and we believe this trend is here to stay,” he said. Blueground itself allows staff to be nomadic.
The CEO added that he expects revenue to grow 40% in the 12 months and expects revenue growth of 85% by 2022.
Earlier this year, Blueground was also named “Best Urban Property Management Company” at the 2021 Shortyz Awards, which took place virtually in April and received more than 69,000 votes from around the world.
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