Livly wants to conquer the multifamily world.
The Chicago-based company, which describes itself as a property management “platform,” gives people a way to communicate with their management, pay rent, accept packages and tackle other tasks that come with living in an apartment. Today, people in north of 1,000 Chicago-area units have access to Livly, but the company’s ambitions are vastly larger.
Jacob Rynar
“We anticipate hundreds of thousands of units by the end of 2019,” chief marketing officer Jacob Rynar told Inman Thursday.
To get there, Livly has raised millions and is touting features of its platform that it says go far beyond a typical renter interface.
First, the money. Livly announced earlier this month that it had raised $10 million in seed funding. The cash came from a handful of different investors — including Pritzker Group Venture Capital, Navitas Capital and JLL Spark — and marks the company’s transition from its initial year-and-a-half “stealth mode” to a wider launch.
Rynar said the money is being used to build “out our technical and account management teams,” and to hire customer support staffers.
A screenshot showing Livly’s interface | Credit: Livly
But its Livly’s features that the company hopes will propel it into multitudes of new apartments. Rynar said that in addition to typical rent paying and communication tools, Livly will include a host of other services that landlords may not typically provide. Tenants can, for example, book a dog walker, have their laundry done, or request maid service for their apartments.
While signing up for a unit, soon-to-be tenants can also buy renter’s insurance through Livly’s platform. And when a renter makes a purchase, both Livly and the landlord get a cut of the proceeds.
Rynar said that was part of the company’s mission of staying “hyper focused on generating revenue for owners.”
“One of the things we focus on heavily is generating revenue for property owners,” Rynar added. “We’re actually monetizing digital transactions throughout the entire renter journey.”
Rynar said that renters first encounter Livly via an email that begins an “on-boarding flow.” The email prompts renters to input their information and gives them a chance to purchase insurance, then eventually directs them to download a mobile app. That app ultimately becomes “truly the remote control of your life in the building,” Rynar said.
A screenshot showing Livly’s interface | Credit: Livly
This process solves a number of inefficiencies that Rynar believes still exist in the multifamily world, such has having to make maintenance requests through the comparatively slow medium of email.
“We’re facilitating a better way of communicating with a property management team,” he added.
In a statement, Livly elaborated further, saying “gone are the days of running paper checks down to the manager’s office, waiting around at home to receive and sign for a package or finding time to return a service phone call.”
Other features of the platform that the company is developing include chatbot technology, additional on-demand services, and keyless entry.
Rynar said that Livly plans to expand via partnerships with developers — who can customize the platform to suit their needs — and in the near-term will remain focused on multifamily buildings (as opposed to, say, single family rentals).
The company has a list of 40 cities in its sights, and expects to see its technology-based renter experience spread across the U.S. by the end of the year.
“It is effectively an operating system for multifamily renters,” Rynar added.
