MADISON, Wis. – July
30, 2014 – The hyperlocal online rental marketplace ABODO announced today
it has closed $1.25 million in Series A financing, led by American Family
Ventures. Also joining the round are 4490 Ventures and Lakewest Venture
Partners. Unlike traditional apartment listing services, ABODO focuses on
building a massive presence in targeted markets to ensure a unique, locally
tailored search experience for renters. ABODO will use the financing to deepen
its hold on the six initial markets in which the company launched and to expand
into 25 additional markets in the coming year. Former Rent.com co-founder
Michael Taus has joined ABODO as vice president of Marketing to expand the company’s
footprint in underserved rental markets nationwide.
“We invest in innovations that meet customer needs in unique
and impactful ways,” said Dan Reed, managing director at American Family
Ventures. “We’re pleased with the results in ABODO’s initial markets and are
excited to help it expand into other underserved areas.”
ABODO grew out of firsthand experience with the pains of
apartment hunting. After four moves while attending the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, co-founder and CEO Alec Slocum became frustrated by the lack
of local focus and apartment inventory available through national apartment
listing services. Together, he and co-founders Chad Aldous and Adam Olien
launched ABODO as a hyperlocal rental marketplace that featured the largest, most
accurate inventory of local apartments in Madison.
“After way too many apartment hunts, we realized that none of
the listing services really represented our local market. We knew there had to
be a better way to expose the true inventory available and improve upon the
actual search experience at the same time,” Slocum said. “We built ABODO to do
just that, and finally make it easy for renters to find a great home. After
testing and improving the service in multiple markets, we’re ready to expand
our footprint, and we’re excited to be doing it with backers who understand the
real estate market and share in our vision to deliver a better experience – not
just in big cities, but across the country.”
In the first 12 months of operation in Madison, ABODO built an
inventory of more than 2,000 available rental apartments and houses around the
University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. During that same period, more than 50
percent of the student population used ABODO to find their next apartment.
Since then, the company has expanded into and seen faster growth in several
other Midwest markets.
“ABODO is a great example of a Midwest company that
understands its markets and customers as well as, if not better than, its Bay
Area counterparts,” said Greg Robinson, managing director of 4490 Ventures.
“As a Midwest venture fund with Silicon Valley roots, we found ABODO to be
a great fit for our portfolio and we’re looking forward to helping the company
grow.”
“We have deep industry perspective on real estate and technology,
which gave us an upper-hand in evaluating the market opportunity for ABODO,”
said Jonathan McCulloch, co-founder of Lakewest Venture Partners. “In Madison,
where they launched, ABODO offers about 25 percent more inventory than even the
largest online real estate services, yet the search process is extremely simple
and intuitive. We like their approach and believe that there are many
underserved customers who crave a service like ABODO in other markets across
the country. We also are impressed that so many property management companies
are enjoying the results they’re getting from ABODO.”
ABODO provides property managers with an efficient channel to
reach prospective renters and fill their vacancies. “We are very happy with the
leads that have been provided through ABODO,” said Katy Krueger, vice president
of multifamily management at Colliers in Madison. “They have become one of our
best sources for leads.”
The company recently launched the ABODO Apartment Search
iPhone app, which is available for free download on iTunes today. An Android
app is expected in the near future.
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