Lessen, the marketplace platform that unites property owners and service professionals to deliver property services better, faster and cheaper than ever before, today announced that it has closed a $35 million Series A funding round.
The Series A is being led by Fifth Wall, the largest venture capital firm focused on technologies for the global real estate industry. Seed-round investors in Lessen, including Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst and Navitas Capital, also participated in the company’s Series A, bringing total capital invested in Lessen to $44 million. Proceeds from the current investment will be used to fund new technology products, support new field operations teams, and facilitate market expansion. Dan Wenhold, a partner at Fifth Wall, will join Lessen’s Board of Directors.
Lessen modernizes the real estate industry with technology that delivers a comprehensive, end-to-end solution for property services. Lessen saves all parties time and money by replacing outdated manual processes and spreadsheets with centralized project and work order management, as well as integrated dashboards, billing and analytics.
Lessen’s platform is flexible, efficient and service professional-friendly. It provides a well-defined and consistent job flow for service pros, incorporating fast and guaranteed payments for completed work, as well as tools that providers can use to quickly grow their businesses.
The platform currently has more than 1,000 service providers, across 26 markets, which have completed more than 2,000 jobs for institutional investors of single-family residential, multifamily residential, and short-term rental properties.
“We’re ecstatic about partnering with a team of world-class investors to build and grow the future of real estate property services,” said Jay McKee, Founder and CEO of Lessen. “The industry is poised for a revolution in the way that property services are performed, delivered and managed at scale.”
He continued, “Lessen is excited about building a platform that will enable service professionals to increase earnings and reduce stress, while allowing property owners to lower their costs and completely outsource property management concerns.”
“The pandemic has supercharged growth in the single-family rental market, with no sign of slowing down, yet landlords lack the technology needed to effectively manage maintenance across their portfolios at scale,” said Dan Wenhold of Fifth Wall. “Lessen stands alone in its approach, offering a streamlined solution to the entire property services lifecycle. We believe the opportunity for Lessen is massive, and we’re thrilled to support the company through this next phase of its evolution and beyond.”
“Khosla Ventures backs great teams in large markets, and we found both with Lessen,” commented David Weiden, Managing Director at Khosla Ventures. “Jay brings a rare combination of deep industry experience and a vision for how it can transform. Lessen brings a similar set of on-demand marketplace services to residential real estate we see in other investments in our portfolio such as DoorDash and Stripe.”
“Lessen is creating agility and opportunity for property owners, reliable and smoother work for professionals, and better experiences for tenants,” said Quentin Clark of General Catalyst. “We are thrilled to continue partnering with Jay and the entire Lessen team as they scale the solutions they are building to empower owners, managers and employees.”
“Demand for the services solutions Lessen brings is large, growing and clear to real estate operators, but finding a team with the industry knowledge and technical skill to deliver is rare,” said Louis Schotsky, Managing Partner at Navitas Capital. “The combination instantly stood out to us as a compelling investment.”
About Lessen
Lessen is the marketplace platform that unites property owners and service professionals to deliver property services better, faster and cheaper than ever before. The Lessen platform provides complete job workflow and outsourcing of property service projects, automating the management of the entire property services lifecycle. It seamlessly connects property owners to a nationwide network of vetted professionals for renovation, maintenance, cleaning, and turn services, efficiently delivering property services at scale. Lessen is a venture-backed, privately held company based in Scottsdale, Arizona, with offices in Seattle and Miami. To learn more, please visit lessen.com.
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