Year: 2017
Sandalphon invests in Truss’ Series A
Truss Raises $7.7 Million Series A Round
Investment Will Drive Market Expansion, Product Development and Customer Experience
CHICAGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Truss, a Commercial Real Estate (CRE) tech platform, today announced the close of a $7.7 million Series A round led by Navitas Capital. Additional investors include Hyde Park Angels with a board seat to Jeffrey Hammes, Chairman of Kirkland & Ellis and a board observer role by Meredith Mendes, COO and Executive Director of Jenner & Block. Hyde Park Venture Partners is reinvesting after the initial seed round. With the latest funding, Truss has raised over $9 million in total capital.
Truss was created to solve a crucial pain point in the CRE industry: the office search process for companies needing space under 10,000 square feet. Truss will use the investment for additional market expansion, product development and improving the customer experience using Matterport’s best of breed 3D touring technology.
“There is a huge unmet need to help streamline the leasing process for small tenants and landlords. Therein lies the opportunity for Truss, which is uniquely positioned to provide content, context, and transparency – leveraging a technology-based listing and brokerage platform,” said James Pettit, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Navitas Capital. “We are excited to watch the team at Truss solve the challenges that small tenants and landlords have been facing when it comes to finding and leasing office space.” James Pettit will also be joining the Board of Directors.
This funding comes after two successful launches in Chicago and Dallas.
“With this latest round of funding we are able to further refine our solution and bring it to more places,” said Tom Smith, Co-Founder, Truss. “We’re excited to overcome the hurdles that startups, SMBs and other tenants looking for smaller office spaces have had to face.”
“Efficiency hasn’t yet been addressed in the commercial real estate industry,” said Peter Wilkins, Managing Director, Hyde Park Angels. “CRE is now ripe for disruption. Given the overall economics and the team’s previous success, we believe Truss is in a great position to drive market adoption and traction.”
“We are excited to provide Truss with additional capital to help them realize their vision of simplifying real estate transactions for growing businesses. Truss’ experienced management team, differentiated market approach and product vision are truly compelling to us and we look forward to working together,” said John Hoesley, Group Head of Technology Banking, The PrivateBank. The PrivateBank is providing venture debt financing for the transaction.
About Truss
Truss simplifies the process of finding and leasing office space. Its web and mobile platform enables businesses to go from search to lease with ease. More information about Truss and how to lease office space is available at www.buildtruss.com.
Contacts
Elisco Communications
Kate Elisco
312-480-6780
kate@eliscocommunications.com
Sandalphon invests in Kin Insurance’s Seed round
Kin Insurance Launches Modern Home Insurance, Announces $4.0M Financing
Online InsurTech startup, Kin Insurance, offers better, faster, more transparent home insurance in the state of Florida.
CHICAGO, IL (PRWEB) AUGUST 01, 2017
Kin Home Insurance, the company that has built home insurance from scratch so that customers can get the best insurance entire online, in minutes, launched today in its first state, Florida. Since Kin is built on modern technology without paper and legacy IT systems, and does not rely on local brokers for distribution, Kin also provides a better value – more insurance for less money.
Kin was founded in 2016 by financial technology veterans Sean Harper, Lucas Ward and Sebastian Villarreal, who have previously built and sold financial technology businesses to Groupon, Insight Venture Partners and Avant.
Along with the launch, Kin raised $4.0M from top venture capitalists including Commerce Ventures, Omidyar Network, 500 Startups, Chicago Ventures and Portag3 Ventures, as well as top angels including founders and alumni from other top tech companies such as Avant, Square, Capital One, Linkedin and Facebook. “Insurance is a huge part of the economy that hasn’t seen much tech innovation. We are excited to back such an experienced team solving big problems in a giant industry,” said Dan Rosen, founder and Managing Director of Commerce Ventures.
Kin can provide a seamless and instant customer experience because it plugs into every available data source about each house. Historically, insurance companies have relied on the homeowner and the insurance agent to provide information about the house, which is inconvenient for the customer but also that data isn’t very reliable.
“Even if users liked filling out long questionnaires about their houses, most people don’t really know what condition their roof is in, or the replacement cost of their house. As techies with big data experience, we can quickly plug into new data sources and build models that really understand the home a lot better than the owner or an insurance agent” said Lucas Ward, CTO of Kin.
By starting from scratch and cutting out unnecessary costs, Kin can provide a better value to the consumer while still building a profitable business. “94% of homeowners insurance is still sold through local brokers and agents but only 24% of people under the age of 40 actually want to buy that way, and these are the people who are now buying the most houses. There are more insurance offices than fast food restaurants, which is unnecessary and adds a lot of expense and results in higher prices for the consumer,” said Sean Harper, CEO of Kin Home Insurance.
Sandalphon invests in Avail (fka Rentalutions) Seed round
Rentalutions Raises $2 Million to Help DIY Landlords Solve the Rental Process
CHICAGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Rentalutions, the Chicago-based online platform that streamlines the rental process for do-it-yourself (DIY) landlords and their tenants, today announced it closed a $2 million funding round led by Cultivation Capital. This new round of funding will allow Rentalutions to add new features to automate common time-consuming and expensive processes, including finding and screening tenants, accepting payments and managing maintenance requests.
“Our vision is to ease headaches for independent landlords at a lower cost than a property manager. This investment will help us continue to do that at greater scale, while developing new tools for landlords and their tenants.”
There are 8 million DIY landlords in the U.S. renting out 24 million units, yet many of them lack experience and knowledge of the rental process. To help them save time and make money, Rentalutions simplifies property listings, applicant screening, leasing, payments and maintenance.
“When we launched Rentalutions in 2012 as DIY landlords ourselves, we found it was incredibly difficult and time consuming to be a part-time landlord,” said Rentalutions co-founder and CEO Ryan Coon. “Our vision is to ease headaches for independent landlords at a lower cost than a property manager. This investment will help us continue to do that at greater scale, while developing new tools for landlords and their tenants.”
More than 30,000 landlords and 65,000 tenants use Rentalutions today across 8,000 zip codes.
“Rentalutions is modernizing the way independent landlords think about and manage their rental properties. As a landlord myself, I know how difficult it can be to manage a property without any experience or comprehensive resources available,” said Cultivation Capital General Partner Cliff Holekamp.
Holekamp, who also joined the Rentalutions board, added, “It’s refreshing to see someone tackling the challenges we face with one comprehensive solution. Cultivation Capital looks forward to continuing to support Rentalutions as they grow and scale.”
Other investors in this round include M25 Group and Sandalphon Capital. Rentalutions previously raised $1 million in funding.
About Rentalutions
Rentalutions empowers do-it-yourself landlords and their tenants with knowledge and resources to make renting easy. More than 30,000 landlords and 65,000 tenants across the U.S. use Rentalutions to save time and make money through simplifying and digitizing the entire rental process, including: rental listings, tenant screening, customized leases, online payments and maintenance requests. Learn more at https://www.rentalutions.com.
Contacts
For Rentalutions
Media Contact:
Leor Reef
leor@propllr.com
901.484.3802
Sandalphon invests in Realvision’s Seed round
Realvision Raises $1.3M in Seed Funding for Interactive Real Estate Listings
Platform for rendering VR-ready, interactive 3D property tours using DSLR cameras and computer vision will aggressively accelerate product development
MINNEAPOLIS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Realvision today announced the completion of a $1.3 million round of seed funding to aggressively accelerate product development for the company’s Realvision Tours. Realvision Tours provide real estate professionals with a comprehensive content marketing package containing three of the most effective tools for selling properties online, including: a VR-ready, interactive 3D tour, an auto-generated floor plan drafted in architectural style, and unlimited high-quality still photographs of the listed property.
Realvision raises $1.3M for Interactive #RealEstate Listings. View sample #RealvisionTour: http://ow.ly/mQyj309U45U |
Dundee Venture Capital led the investment round with participation from Brightstone Venture Capital, Loup Ventures, Sandalphon Capital, Bridge Investment Group and 701 Angel Fund.
Realvision’s all-in-one content marketing solution is packaged on a single property website following a single property shoot by a professional real estate photographer. The platform’s unique image capture process allows photographers to harness the full benefits of the technology by using select DSLR cameras. By engineering a capture process that does not require the purchase of proprietary 3D hardware, Realvision lowered the barrier to entry for real estate photographers who seek to expand their service offerings and stay ahead of technological disruption.
R&D efforts fueled by the funding will focus on machine learning, computer vision image processing, new user capabilities, and aggregate data collection within virtual reality. Realvision has released apps for touring properties in VR using Oculus Rift and Google Cardboard (Android/iOS), with the release of VR apps for Samsung Gear VR and HTC Vive expected before the end of the month.
“Our platform is engineered to beat tomorrow’s disruption today,” said Realvision co-founder Bryn Erickson. “We’ve proven we can help real estate professionals sell more properties today, but tomorrow is a moving target and this funding will help us develop for the future and position our customers to be market leaders when it arrives.”
Realvision has been bootstrapping since 2013 and experienced accelerated growth without the help of outside funding or marketing support. With platform growth driven globally by organic word-of-mouth among real estate photographers, Realvision exceeded $1 million in revenue prior to any outside investment in less than 24 months following the delivery of the company’s first Realvision Tour.
Key partnerships in the residential and commercial real estate markets have continued to accelerate growth in 2017. In the Minneapolis real estate market, for instance, Realvision recently announced a partnership with Spacecrafting, a Minneapolis-based real estate photography and video firm. Spacecrafting serves nearly 4,000 realtors, architects, builders and designers in the Twin Cities.
“While any photographer can harness our technology,” said Erickson, “our partners share our high standards and help us maintain the industry-leading quality of our tours. In this regard, Spacecrafting is the perfect partner for us in the Minneapolis market.”
About Realvision
With offices in Toronto and Minneapolis, Realvision is a B2B technology company focused on bringing complete and consistent digital experiences to the real estate industry. Every Realvision Tour combines three powerful content marketing tools: a VR-ready, interactive 3D tour, an auto-generated floor plan drafted in architectural style, and unlimited HDR-quality still photographs, all combined on a single property website following a single property shoot by a professional real estate photographer. Realvision has been operating in the real estate industry since 2013, servicing thousands of brokers, agents and real estate professionals. To learn more, visit: http://real.vision/
Contacts
Realvision
Ryan Benson, 507-360-5743
ryan@real.vision
Sandalphon invests in Jiobit’s Seed round
JIOBIT RAISES $3 MILLION TO LAUNCH THE WORLD’S SMALLEST LOCATION MONITOR, STARTING WITH KIDS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Chicago, January 26, 2017 – Jiobit, a company creating the world’s smallest and longest lasting location tracking solution, has raised an additional $3 million in capital. The new funding will fuel the production and marketing of their first product, Jiobit, a smart tag for kids – targeted for pre-sale later this year. Investors include Lior Ron, Co-Founder of Otto (now Uber), MATH Venture Partners, and Inflection Equity. The announcement follows Jiobit’s completion of the prestigious Techstars Accelerator Program.
Jiobit, which takes wearables off the wrist, is much more than a GPS tracker. The team has developed proprietary features that set it apart from the competition and ensure that parents never lose track of what matters most. This cutting edge technology has been baked into a tiny package that includes:
- ● Up to Two Months of Battery Life: The company has invented technology called Progressive Beaconing, which uses multiple sensors and radios to traverse various wireless technologiesimproving coverage and power consumption. This combination not only results in industry leading battery life, but also allows Jiobit to track in every location – indoors, outdoors, in over 120 countries and even above or below in multi-level buildings.
- ● Machine Learning: Proprietary algorithms intelligently determine a child’s behavior, context and location to figure out routines and routes without setup – a bus route for example.
- ● Superior Security: Jiobit deploys similar encryption as a chip credit card and has engineered the solution to ensure all data is safe. It’s the first children’s wearable to integrate a tamper-resistant chip to provide encrypted cloud connections and secure identification for each Jiobit device.
“Months of research and testing showed the size of the problem,” said founder, John Renaldi. “More than half of parents have lost track of a child. With 18M kids in our market, there’s huge opportunity to help.”
The company’s vision is to continue to break barriers when it comes to size and integration so that Jiobit is seamlessly incorporated into all aspects of home and family life. “Parents are incredibly enthusiastic about solutions that can help keep their kids safe and make their job a little easier,” said Renaldi.
About Jiobit
Jio is comprised of seasoned designers, marketers, and engineers with a history of building innovative and disruptive consumer products. In prior endeavors, the team has logged a combined 150 patents and developed and shipped products selling in the millions worldwide. Jio is headquartered in Chicago, with a software development center in Silicon Valley. To view open positions visit jiobit.com/careers.
For more info contact Jessy Fofana – jessy@laruepr.com or visit www.jiobit.com.