Homegrown, US-based property tech startup HappyCo has completed a US$10.8 million Series A round led by Sydney’s Alium Capital Management.
Australian VC firms Tempus Partners and PieLab Venture Partners also participated in the round along with HappyCo’s existing investors Larsen Ventures and Sandalphon Capital.
Founded in Adelaide in 2011, before relocating to San Francisco the following year, HappyCo is cloud-based platform for inspecting, managing and monitoring residential properties and commercial facilities in real-time via a mobile app. Boasting customers such as Airbnb, Softbank/Fortress and Vicinity Centres, the company is currently involved in the management of more than 1.2 million units globally.
According to co-founder and CEO, Jindou Lee, HappyCo will use the Series A funding to invest in R&D operations, both in Australia and the US, and to sustain the growth of its Asia-Pacific customer base through new hires.
“HappyCo’s latest capital raise is the result of our growing customer base in a global real estate market worth $7 trillion,” he told Dynamic Business. “It’s also a reflection of the massive problems we’re solving. Specifically, our customers manage geographically dispersed properties, and we give them real-time visibility across their real estate portfolio to monitor and manage their assets efficiently and effectively.
“Heading into our Series A round, we proved the value our product generates – our customers are seeing massive ROI across their business and, in turn, this has led to our rapid growth.”
Commenting on the value HappyCo’s Series A investors will generate for his company, Lee said he and his team were “very selective” about who they brought o board. He explained, “It’s important to work with people that share our core values regardless of their background or investing power. The investors we’ve added will strengthen the depth and breadth of our leadership, help us to further grow the business.”
Lee said the decision to relocate San Francisco early arose from a desire to be closer to their core customer base so they could “better solve their challenges” – however, he acknowledged the company’s vision goes beyond the US.
“There are over 100 million rental units across the globe,” he said. “It’s a massive industry, and there are so many problems that technology can help improve or solve. We want to keep focused on leveraging our expertise in using technology to help this industry and ultimately, make our customers happy!”
