Proptech startup Dongnae mentioned Tuesday it plans to accumulate Stevens, a South Korean firm that operates co-living enterprise Dears.
The two corporations didn’t disclose the acquisition worth, however Dongnae mentioned it’s going to buy Stevens with a mixture of money and fairness. The Seoul-based proptech outfit beforehand raised a complete of $34 million, together with a $21 million Series A spherical it introduced final 12 months. Dongnae expects to shut the transaction by the top of September. The firm’s traders embody the likes of NFX, Daol Investment, Hana Financial, MetaProp, Maple VC and WeWork co-founder Miguel McKelvey.
Dongnae’s major product, Dongnae FLEX, gives a furnished house rental on its platform with versatile lease phrases for as brief a interval as 4 weeks and decrease rental deposits.
The addition of Dears will enable the corporate to improve the Dongnae FLEX service, handle properties “with a collective AUM of over $400 million,” and span 90 house complexes throughout Seoul and Pangyo, the place a bunch of tech corporations, together with Kakao and Naver, are situated. Dears Pangyo has greater than 520 studio flat models in Pangyo.
The outfit additionally will co-manage the Dears Myeongdong constructing in Seoul alongside Xi S&D. Dongnae will handle industrial areas of Dears Myeongdong, consisting of B1, 14F and the rooftop, co-founder and CEO Matthew Shampine mentioned, including that Xi S&D will function Dears Myungdong’s 112 models that provide each short- and long-term stays.
Dongnae says that is its first acquisition. The present management staff at Stevens will be a part of Dongnae to help growth and proceed to construct on their progress to this point, Shampine instructed TechCrunch.
“We are in active discussions with a number of landlords and land developers to open more buildings to be operated as and through Dongnae,” Shampine mentioned.
Former WeWork executives Shampine and Insong Kim co-founded Dongnae in 2020 to digitize South Korea’s fragmented actual property market. In South Korea, folks must work with dozens of brokers to discover a new dwelling, and there are two choices to pay lease within the nation: paying a month-to-month charge (similar to in lots of components of the world) and paying the whole lot upfront, known as Jeonse.
By offering Dongnae’s signature decrease rental deposits on a versatile, short-term foundation, the co-founders need to sort out Jeonse, the nation’s distinctive residential rental system. This system permits tenants to lease an house with a big lump sum deposit, which is about 70% of the home valuation, with out paying month-to-month rental charges.
“Since our Series A in March of 2022, we have been focused on growing our real estate portfolio, getting customer feedback, and building the necessary front- and back-end technology to truly create a better way to rent homes in Korea,” Shampine mentioned.
The firm has invested “heavily” in enhancing the client expertise since final 12 months. The outfit says it has digitized the whole process as a substitute of the everyday lengthy, paper-filed leasing course of and launched its personal digital actual property marketing consultant Suzie by integrating synthetic intelligence into its platform. Like a chatbot, Suzie solutions potential residents’ questions on housing or Dongnae’s models in any spoken language.
“From Adam Neumann’s Flow and companies such as Mint House, Zeus Living, and Blueground in America to Asian and European startups like Cove and Habyt — there has been great innovation in the residential rental market around the world over the past few years,” Shampine mentioned in a press release. “Our team is committed to bringing about a better way to rent here in Korea.”
Dongnae’s software is now out there for obtain on Android and iOS.
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