Participated · Seed · Jun 2020

Yuca is a Brazilian proptech that operates a vertical "living as a service" model covering property acquisition, renovation, landlord intermediation and day‑to‑day management. It currently manages more than 500 rooms and an entire building and offers a single billed package covering rent, condo fees, IPTU, utilities, high‑speed internet and weekly cleaning via an app. The company began in co‑living but is expanding into individual and family housing products and has acquired a full building in Vila Madalena plus studios in Pinheiros and the city center. Yuca also launched one of the first residential‑income funds (an FII) focused on shared apartments in November 2020 and plans to democratize residential real‑estate investment through a new investment platform. Growth has driven rapid hiring—headcount grew from 30 to 100 in 2020–21—and the company intends to scale technology and product teams further. With a vertical operating model and an emphasis on converting commercial assets to housing, Yuca positions itself to expand supply and investor access in Brazil's rental market. Yuca converts underused large apartments in west São Paulo into shared, fully furnished homes, renting individual rooms and handling cleaning, bill payments, condo fees and IPTU. The company started in 2019 and currently operates 70 rooms across 45 apartments, with about 800 people on its waiting list. Units include full kitchens, TV rooms and desks; Yuca also standardizes renovations to reduce costs (from R$1,800 to R$1,500 per m²) and acquires/leases apartments at roughly R$6,000 per m². Its target demographic is 21–35 year olds, about half of whom come from outside São Paulo, and applicants are screened by questionnaire to match housemates. Yuca is pursuing scale through centralized operations and attracting investor capital to buy shares in remodeled apartments via regulated platforms. The company positions shared apartments as a more affordable, centrally located housing alternative and plans to view growth on a multi-year horizon. Yuca renovates rundown, centrally located apartments in São Paulo into shared co-living units that include cleaning, concierge and utilities bundled into a single rent. The company targets tech workers who want affordable, flexible housing close to work and community. Yuca launched its first unit and has about 30 units currently under renovation, with plans to open one apartment per week over the next two months and to scale thereafter. Units are roughly 200–220 square feet with four units fitted into former larger apartments; renovation takes one to three months. Rents start at about $500 per month, inclusive of condo fees, utilities and services. Yuca raised a $4.7M pre-seed that the article describes as unusually large for a Brazilian pre-seed round.