US: Online short-term rental property management startup Rabbu has raised $1.5 million in funding from Agilis Equity Partners and angel investors.
Currently, property owners engage with Rabbu in two different ways.
Property owners can sign up to a fixed plan, whereby they sign a long-term lease with Rabbu and receive pre-determined monthly payments with a minimum 12-month contract. The second option is a flex plan, where owners contract Rabbu to manage everything on their behalf and the company charges them a percentage fee per booking for a minimum six-month contract.
Rabbu CEO and founder, Emir Dukic, said: “We will use the funds to expand into three additional markets this year. We will also launch and market a new SaaS platform which will utilise AIoT to enable other hosts, property investors and property managers to more efficiently manage their own properties.”
Anyone who owns an investment property, second home or garage apartment, will be able to use Rabbu for turnkey revenue generation.
There will also now be scope for the startup to transition from individual property owners into apartments, large institutional homeowners and possibly even hotels.
Dukic told the Charlotte Agenda: “Our clients started as the individuals but have now moved on to institutional investors and even multi-family developers which is where we will focus.”
A UNC Charlotte graduate, Dukic started by listing the garage at his Plaza Midwood home on Airbnb. Since then, Rabbu has grown to have 67 listings and is looking to add 250 additional listings over the next two years.
Although they do not own any of the properties, they are exploring opportunities that focus on short-term rentals.
Roughly 80 per cent of the platform’s bookings come though Airbnb.
Dukic said: “We have a good relationship with them and they highlight what we do.”
The company’s growing team currently consists of 11 people and they recently renovated their office in South End.
