Blackbird Ventures has led a $US6 million seed-round for Wellington-founded accommodation sub-letting start-up Kiki (formerly EasyRent).
Kiki co-founder Toby Thomas-Smith said the funding will finance entry of the business to the New York City market in October.
Blackbird’s $US4.5 million investment is one of the largest the Sydney-based firm has made at seed-stage.
The round also attracted individual investors from the tech industry including former Airbnb executive Harry Uffindell, Facebook Marketplace founder Bowen Pan, former Bumble executive Michelle Battersby, former Canva executive and founder of Phase One Ventures Mahesh Muralidahar as well as ex-Uber executives Tyler Trerotola and Jaikumar Ganesh.
Thomas-Smith started Easy Rent in 2018 when he was at university.
Working part-time as a cleaner of properties let via Airbnb, he discovered many were well booked during summer by remained empty over winter. He also realised that many university students who rented accommodation for the university year left their rooms empty when they went home on breaks. He built EasyRent as an invite-only matchmaking service to enable students to let their accommodation when they were not using it, typically to other students working as interns.
In 2021, when EasyRent had gained some traction, Thomas-Smith brought in Jack Montgomerie as co-founder, and software engineer Alexander Nicholson. They worked to expand the business to a wider audience. In 2022, the start-up raised a $NZ230,000 pre-seed round from early-stage venture firm NZVC and individual investors including Airtasker co-founder Jonathan Lui and Vend founder Vaughan Fergusson. The EasyRent team used that funding to enter the Australian market targeting Sydney’s Bondi Beach area. They soon achieved 1,500 lettings in that area alone.
In New York City, the Kiki team plan to first target Australians as listers and have started a waitlist ahead of launching. They will comply with New York City regulations that require sub-lets to be approved by landlords and run for a minimum of 30 days.
After New York, Thomas-Smith says the team plan to expand to the top ten cities in the US and then 20 cities in Europe.
Kiki operates in a similar way to dating apps. The platform matches those listing accommodation with potential renters who appear compatible, non-smokers with non-smokers etc. The app also operates on an invitation-only model with all users having to be vouched for by someone else via Instagram. Communications between lister and potential renter then continue over Instagram.
For each listing, Kiki takes a 10% commission.
Image: Kiki is targeting Australians living in New York City.