Participated · Series B · Feb 2022

Funnel provides a renter-centric RMS platform that treats the renter — not the property — as the source of truth, enabling enterprise-wide visibility across the entire renter journey. Its completed front-office suite includes CRM, a virtual leasing agent, online leasing, onboarding, and a resident portal. The platform leverages AI and automation to reduce rote tasks, enable shared services and role specialization, and allow operators to move away from antiquated 1:100 leasing models to improve margins and team experience. Funnel says its centralized operating model is already embraced by eight companies that rank among the top 20 owners or operators, along with many other customers. The company is expanding its sales and marketing teams and recently added multifamily veteran Johnny Hanna to the team. Financially, Funnel announced a $32 million Series B-2 financing to expedite adoption of its new operating model. Funnel provides a full-stack, renter-centric leasing and marketing platform that centralizes leasing operations and automates the renter journey for multifamily owners and operators. Its product suite includes Engage (CRM and lead management), Amplify (natural language virtual leasing agent), Convert (online leasing with instant income verification via a FinTech integration), and Signal (listing syndication and data capture). The company emphasizes placing the renter at the center of interactions to improve leasing efficiency, reduce operational costs, and optimize marketing spend. Funnel has expanded from an apartment marketing platform founded in 2010 to a broader end-to-end leasing solution since 2018. The business reports 115% year-over-year revenue growth and has doubled headcount from 40 to 80; its platform is used by 17 of the NMHC Top 50 and Engage is deployed by 5 of the NMHC Top 20 owners. Funnel plans to develop renter onboarding, resident portal, and retention tools to complete the end-to-end renter journey. Nestio offers a next-generation marketing and leasing automation platform that streamlines the entire rental process for multifamily owners, operators and renters. The platform centralizes inventory distribution, lead tracking and management, renter engagement and touring, and delivers advanced real-time reporting within a single dashboard. Enhancements include automated workflows and machine learning to expedite responses and improve efficiency across the leasing lifecycle. CEO Caren Maio, who founded the company from a renter’s perspective, says the product aims to make finding and renting an apartment as easy as booking a hotel or restaurant. Nestio’s customers manage hundreds of thousands of listings across major U.S. markets including New York, Boston, Chicago, Houston and Dallas. The company emphasizes delivering effortless, on-demand and personalized experiences for renters while improving operator efficiency. Nestio began as a renter-focused tool and has evolved into a full-service leasing and marketing platform for residential landlords and brokers. The product allows customers to manage inventory, track leads, advertise listings, and communicate in real time with consumer-facing sites such as Trulia and Zillow. Nestio says it now originates half of New York City’s rental listings and has generated over $20 million in additional revenue for clients. The company is currently live in NYC and plans to expand to Boston, Chicago, Miami and Washington, D.C. New funding will be used to execute that geographic expansion, advance the product roadmap, and grow the sales, marketing, and engineering teams. The company also announced the addition of Scott Wolfgang as CFO; he previously worked at Quotidian Ventures and served on the Hootsuite board. Nestio launched out of TechStars in 2011 as a consumer-facing apartment search tool but pivoted in 2013 to focus on landlords and brokers. It builds back-end tools that let landlords and brokers constantly update inventory and availability in real time, replacing workflows that relied on Google Docs, faxes, phone calls and paper files. The platform has been adopted widely in New York and now handles more than 30 percent of New York’s rental market. The Real Estate Board of New York named Nestio’s platform one of four approved technology vendors. The company says it is operating “above the line” and is growing rapidly in the real estate community. Recent funding will be used to accelerate growth and add hires, predominantly on the sales side.

Participated · Equity · Sep 2021

Bilt operates a payments and neighborhood commerce platform that lets members earn rewards on rent, HOA fees, mortgage payments, and everyday neighborhood spending. The company has grown from a card business into a full loyalty ecosystem partnered with property managers and more than 40,000 merchants. Its Bilt Alliance covers more than 4.5 million homes, has signed roughly 1-in-4 apartment buildings nationwide, and works with 70% of the nation’s top 100 property managers. More than 85% of members use Bilt’s platform without the Bilt card, and the company processes payments across ACH, debit and credit rails. Bilt expects to cross $1 billion in revenue by Q1 2026, to process over $100 billion in housing spend by year-end, and to drive over $10 billion annually to neighborhood merchants. The platform includes an AI-powered neighborhood concierge, a marketplace to drive local commerce, and value-added services for property managers. Bilt Rewards operates a resident loyalty program and a neighborhood loyalty program that let renters earn points on rent and local spending and allow merchants to run targeted campaigns. The platform partners with large multifamily owners and operators and covers renters in more than four million units, with members in all 50 states. Bilt offers one-to-one point transfers to 18 loyalty programs, a travel portal, fitness bookings, an online collection of goods, and redemptions that include rent credits and down-payment assistance. The company is expanding beyond apartments into condominiums, single-family homes and plans to include mortgage payments later this year, while growing into categories like healthcare, gas, and groceries. Operational metrics cited in the articles include platform spend of over $30 billion annually (a 50% increase since January), more than 21,000 restaurant partners and 3,500 fitness studios, and partnerships with seven of the 10 largest multifamily managers. Bilt says it will use new capital to further scale its neighborhood loyalty program and merchant relationships across the country. Bilt Rewards operates a loyalty and payments platform that enables members to earn points and build credit when they pay rent and spend at local merchants. Points can be redeemed across airlines, hotels, travel, fitness classes, Amazon purchases, rent credit or toward a future down payment. The company also issues a co-branded Mastercard through Wells Fargo with no transaction fees for rent payments. Bilt reports annualized member spend nearing $20 billion and says it achieved EBITDA profitability in 2023. Its loyalty program has expanded from more than 2.5 million apartment units at the time of its last raise to nearly 4 million units today. Bilt plans to use new capital to grow its Rewards Alliance with multifamily, single-family, and student housing operators, bolster its Neighborhood Rewards program for local merchants, and expand into mortgage payment rewards. Bilt Rewards works with large multifamily owners and operators to offer a loyalty program and co-branded credit card that allow renters to earn points and improve credit via monthly rent payments. The platform has been rolled out to more than 2.5 million apartment units and has over half a million customers across its loyalty program and credit card. Bilt reports processing over $3.5 billion in annualized rent payments and over $1.6 billion in annualized card spend, with both figures rising significantly in the last 90 days. Launched in June 2021 out of the Kairos startup studio by founder and CEO Ankur Jain, the company has raised about $213 million in total funding to date. Bilt recently launched Bilt Homes, a tool that shows members homes they could buy for the same monthly payment as rent using real-time rates and personal data, and continues to offer free rent reporting to help boost credit. The company said it reached profitability earlier this year and plans to keep much of the new capital in reserves while focusing on core commercial partnerships and longer-term opportunities including a possible IPO or acquisitions. Bilt Rewards operates a loyalty program that lets renters earn points on rent payments with no fees and via a co-branded Bilt Mastercard. The company launched in June out of the Kairos startup studio and has rolled out across over 2 million rental units, addressing roughly 109 million U.S. renters. Members can earn up to 50,000 points on rent per year, accrue unlimited points on the card, and benefit from a 0-1-2-3 points structure (1x rent, 2x travel, 3x dining, 1x other purchases) with no annual fee. Bilt worked with regulators, Fannie Mae and HUD to allow points to be applied toward a mortgage and offers rent-reporting to credit bureaus and a concierge for members redeeming points toward home down payments. The company reports about 20% enrollment among residents in participating properties and has added new member benefits including interest paid as points and bonus points for new leases and renewals. Bilt says it will use the new funding to expand its real estate and loyalty partner network, grow distribution channels and make its credit-card product more widely available while positioning to eventually become a mortgage provider.