In the dynamic multifamily rental sector, investors are betting big on Funnel Leasing , a software platform for property managers that announced Monday it has raised $32 million in a so-called Series B2 funding round.
According to Funnel, RET Ventures led the round, with participation from Trinity Partners and a group of co-investors from the multifamily owner-operator whose software offers customer relationship management, virtual leasing agents, online leasing, integration and a resident communications portal. the.
The 14-year-old Tampa-based company plans to use the funds to further market its centralized property management software platform.
" Funnel was originally focused solely on potential customers," said Funnel CEO Tyler Christiansen . “With our first Series B financing, we developed products for residents. The B2 cycle now enables us to build a sales organization to sell these products to our customers and property managers.
Jonny Hanna , a multifamily expert and co-founder of property management platform Entrata and sales portal Homie , recently joined Funnel's leadership to lead the expansion of its sales team, Christiansen said .
"The market demand for centralized tools remains a very important topic in the industry, as is certainly the case with AI automation," added Christiansen. “In Funnel there is a central lease, but we will add centralized management. In short, sales, marketing and comprehensive features, but not new products per se.
"As the housing market continues to evolve, rental growth is slowing and operators are trying to improve efficiency," John Helm , founder and partner of RET Ventures, said in a statement . The REIT works with a base of more than 50 investors who own and manage more than $600 billion in real estate, with a specific focus on multi- and single-family rentals.
“We expect its industry adoption to continue to accelerate,” Helm told Funnel. "Our conversations with our strategic investors highlight the need for a centralized, streamlined operating model that leverages automation to reduce costs for multifamily operators while improving the customer experience.
"With [Funnel's] comprehensive platform, owners and operators no longer need to use legacy software to manage tenant journeys and can now move to a modern platform based on the real behavior of owners, teams and tenants."
Funnel's tenant management software platform is designed to give property management companies of all sizes – from large REITs to privately held and third-party managed companies – the flexibility to streamline their operating model and prioritize to-do teams to complete valuable tasks. High first, the company said. Teams can focus on the most valuable tracking and rely on AI and automation to handle repetitive tasks.
Unlike competing property management software companies like RealPage and Yardi , which are designed to manage operations at a single property and don't allow for centralized operations, Christiansen says Funnel is designed to work across multiple assets.
"The challenge for operators is that the average rent increase - the change in rent from year to year - is sustainable," he said. He added: "They no longer benefit from a rent increase, whereas before they benefited from 15 to 20 percent. This is not good or sustainable because their costs increase by 10 to 20 percent, labor is still scarce , and debt and insurance are becoming more expensive.”
Philippe Russo can be reached at prusso@commercialobserver.com .
