Real estate tech company Blueground launches in London
Blueground, a startup providing tech-driven flexible apartment rentals, is launching in London and has raised $50m (£39m) in a funding round.
The real estate tech firm offers Airbnb-style apartment rentals aimed at business travellers, offering rental lengths of one month or longer.
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Blueground, which is planning to have properties in 50 cities by 2023, said it will launch its London portfolio by the end of the year. It plans to offer 250 flats across central locations in the capital – including the City, the West End, and Shoreditch – by the end of 2020.
The company already has a portfolio of over 2,800 flats across in nine cities including New York, San Francisco, Dubai, and Athens. Its corporate clients include Coca-Cola, Samsung, and Fox.
In a similar manner to flexible office space providers, Blueground leases properties on a long-term basis, furnishes and equips them, then leases them out to customers on a flexible short-term basis.
“London is an excellent addition to our existing locations and we are really confident that it will become our largest European market soon,” said co-founder and chief executive Alex Chatzieleftheriou.
“In preparation for our launch in London, we looked closely at the city’s current rental market and the demand for our services, assessing the potential to provide top quality ready-to-move-in apartments with the ultimate goal of transforming our guests’ London living experience,” he added.
The company’s series B funding round was co-led by investment firms Prime Ventures and Westcap Investment Partners, and takes the total Blueground has raised since its launch in 2013 to $78m.
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Blueground said the raise would help it develop its technology and product design. Representatives from Prime Ventures and Westcap will join Blueground’s board as part of the round.
“Through leveraging the power of technology, Blueground has developed a unique value proposition and approach to this emerging space in the market,” said Nick Kalliagkopoulos of Prime Ventures.
Main image credit: Blueground