The Venture Codex Logo

The Venture Codex

Lavanda

1 Long Lane, London, Greater London, SE1 4PG, United Kingdom

Overview

Lavanda builds property management software that lets institutional owners and operators rent inventory by the day, week, month or year alongside conventional tenancies. The product targets multifamily, student accommodation and serviced apartment sectors and is used by institutional customers including Greystar, Blackstone, Hines, Nuveen and Aldar. Founded in 2015, the company has seen growth across the U.S., Europe, Middle East and Australia. The new capital will be deployed to accelerate product development, add a raft of new features and expand the team. Management positions the platform as a way for landlords to outperform conventional rental yields by tapping into short- and medium-term demand. CEO Frederik Lerche-Lerchenborg said the funding is a step toward becoming the de facto technology platform for more flexible, accessible and affordable living. Lavanda provides an award-winning SaaS platform for property managers to institutionalize compliance and legally profit from short- and medium-term rentals. The company pivoted from a laundry sharing-economy origin to focus on the short-term rental market. Its product addresses rapidly evolving laws and regulatory complexity, helping landlords and hospitality professionals manage listings safely and cost-effectively. Lavanda serves over 10,000 rental units and works with major real-estate portfolios including JLL, Aberdeen Standard Investments, Savills, LaSalle, Long Harbour and Europa Capital. The business raised $5 million in a Series A led by Henley to continue streamlining and legitimising the market. The funding will accelerate growth in the UK and support planned expansion into the US and Middle East. Lavanda is a London-based full-service property management and lettings company led by founder Guy Westlake. It enables landlords and homeowners to let properties across major online platforms without handling cleaning or day-to-day property management. Lavanda markets listings as short, medium, or long-term lets on Rightmove, Zoopla, Airbnb and Booking.com to maximize occupancy and returns. The company also provides a property analytics platform that gives total insight into cost bases and helps users optimize net yield. In July 2017 Lavanda raised £1m in funding from backers including Kenny Bruce, Harry Hill and Terry Leahy. The company intends to use the funds to continue to expand its business reach. Lavanda operates an on-demand laundry platform that uses a network of hyper-local self-employed 'Lavanda Pros' who undertake delivery and/or the laundry itself from their homes. The company emphasizes immediate, on-demand service rather than advance bookings and supplies Pros with equipment and training. Lavanda is currently accessible via a mobile-optimized website and plans to launch native iOS and Android apps in the coming weeks. It positions its pricing to be similar to or cheaper than competitors while offering 100% flexibility at no additional cost. Lavanda has raised capital to support expansion beyond Central London and to build its apps. The business faces strong competition from players such as ZipJet, Laundrapp, Washbox, Spyn, ihateironing.com, and LaundryRepublic, and acknowledges marketing will be a key challenge given its modest backing.

Total raised
$14M
Funding rounds
4
Latest round
Equity
Latest activity
Feb 2022

Industries

  • Developer APIs
  • SaaS
  • Software
Visit website

Recent funding

  1. Equity

    Feb 2022

    $7M

  2. Series A

    Sep 2019

    $5M

  3. Equity

    Jul 2017

    $1M

  4. Equity

    Feb 2015

    $0M

Team