E.ventures has invested $60 million into Zumper in a round of Series D fundraising, according to a press release released Tuesday.
Privately held Zumper is a rental marketplace that connects tenants with landlords in an effort to technologically streamline rental applications, leasing and occupancy. The company wants to make renting as simple as booking a hotel.
To date, Zumper has raised $150 million, and this is e.ventures’ first cash infusion into the company.
“Zumper has quickly become the leading independent company focused on the rental market,” said Mathias Schilling, co-founder and managing partner with e.ventures.
Zumper users can run the gamut of the apartment-renting workflow, from search and tenant service to showings, digital transactions and online payments. It’s also designed to assist owner-operators and non-institutional landlords. There are apps for both major mobile operating systems.
The announcement states that funds will be put toward the overall mission, thus backing sales, engineering and the growth of its transaction tools.
A short-supply of listing inventory around the country has pushed its way into the rental market, encouraging landlords to respond by raising rents.
When asked about how his company’s growth reflects the state of residential sales, Anthemos Georgiades, CEO and co-founder of Zumper, said in an email to Inman that it stems from people losing faith in the American dream of homeownership.
“Despite low interest rates and the most recent rate cuts from the Fed, housing affordability, access to mortgages and housing inventory will continue to be major constraints to homeownership, which will maintain a strong demand for rentals,” Georgiades said.
“In addition, from a demographic perspective, Americans are settling down later and want to live a more flexible lifestyle so they remain renters for longer. According to Zumper’s 2019 State of the Renter Report, 32 percent of Americans now do not believe the American dream involves homeownership.”
Zumper claims it has the most number of users within the rent-tech space, with more than 80 million people using it every year to search, market and lease rental properties. It operates in both the United States and Canada.
In 2016, Zumper acquired upstart competitor PadMapper.
In February, it was announced that RentPath will be acquired by CoStar Group, a commercial real estate data company.
Zumper’s high volume of users has allowed it enter the rental industry data market, becoming a source for housing and national economic metrics.
The announcement states that the company has experienced 100 percent year-over-year revenue growth, and it now has 200 employees throughout San Francisco, Scottsdale, New York, Chicago and Rhode Island.
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