Lyvly, a community platform that helps landlords and renters find and manage shared living accommodation, has secured $4.6 million Series A funding from VC firm Mosaic Ventures. Greg Marsh, the co-founder of onefinestay, joins the company as Chairman and investor. The London-based startup will use the funding to scale up the company’s operations and further develop its product, marketing and sales teams.
Founded in 2015, Lyvly is a living community, that matches great housemates to quality homes. The company addresses the need for community, convenience and affordability in the urban rental experience. It is designed to remove pain-points for both landlords and renters, (who they refer to as members). The brand maximises the potential of the new and fast growing co-living trend, whilst working with existing housing stock, rather than purpose built blocks
Individuals looking to move into a Lyvly home apply through the members’ committee, which consists of people from the existing community. Lyvly manages the whole experience for members, who pay one single monthly payment that covers the cost of rent, bills, cleaning, consumables and repairs. All Lyvly homes are fully furnished, right down to the teaspoon in the kitchen drawer. For landlords, Lyvly finds and vets high quality potential renters who stay for the long term, and provides them with property management services. Due to the community and members’ experience, Lyvly can offer landlords lower occupier turnover and therefore higher incomes as properties don’t sit empty for any periods.
Lyvly differentiates itself from competitors by creating a genuine community experience for a specific target demographic, and aims to help them get more out of life. It hosts and supports member events to create connections between like-minded people.
Lyvly’s aim is to create the world’s first shared living community, where individuals can socialise and collaborate with people across accommodation. Hundreds of members are already part of the Lyvly community. Once you become a member of Lyvly you can be part of the network for life. The longer term vision is that members will graduate to different types of living accommodation to grow with them through their different life stages.
The startup is built on the belief that it is the home that is the foundation of thriving communities and it is the people we share our lives with that make life worth living. Lyvly has partnered with Loft, Food Envy, and Laundry Republic to provide additional community experiences. The company has global ambitions and is taking on a rental market share worth £12bn in London alone.
Philip Laney, co-founder and CEO of Lyvly, explained: “A lot of the housing sector doesn’t care for tenants, and they become more like commodities. Whereas we are creating genuine communities around rental housing that allow people to get a lot more out of their life. We have seen a huge movement towards building communities in almost all industries aside from housing. And we believe community should start at home.”
He continued: “We’re so excited about this investment as it will enable us to continue our rapid growth. We already have an incredible team and advisors and will be expanding this further. We are recruiting recruit some of the best developers, marketers and sales staff to help us bring our service across the UK and Europe.”
By the way: If you’re interested to join a fast-growing startup like Lyvly, make sure to check out the EU-Startups Job Board.
