New Zealand-founded rental app that has mobilized millions in the US to reach the world

Toby Thomas-Smith wants to change the way the world lives with his accommodation app. He and his co-founder have just raised nearly $10 million to start operating in the United States.

Kiki is a sublease app that uses dating app concepts, modeled on Hinge’s longer-term focus model, to match lists of temporarily vacant homes with suitable tenants. fit.

Previously called Easy Rent in New Zealand and Australia, it solved the problem of homes being left empty when people were traveling long distances or for other reasons, for one to six months.

But unlike Airbnb, it’s not about making money for tenants but saving them money they would otherwise lose, said Thomas-Smith, who grew up on Auckland’s North Shore.

“It’s a different approach, as it’s more about helping people in need and saving money than making big personal profits.

“It’s about a true circular economy and comes from our larger vision of building a business that is ‘need’ not ‘want’ and that, if successful, will change the way the world lives.”

Despite the great ambition, the success of Kiki’s recent seed funding round in New York shows that investors believe it has potential.

Thomas-Smith and co-founder Jack Montgomerie needed $3 million to launch the app in the US. Last week, they raised US$6 million (NZ$10 million).

The funding was led by Sydney-based Australian venture capital firm Blackbird Ventures, with $4.5 million.

But many well-known backers in the tech industry, including former Airbnb, Bumble and Uber executives, Facebook Marketplace founder Bowen Pan and Phase One Ventures founder Mahesh Muralidhar, also contributed.

The company is valued at $28 million.

Thomas-Smith said it was the biggest seed round in New Zealand’s startup history, but getting there was a tough road and not an overnight success.

He started working on an online platform to sublet rooms that were not being used by students during the summer of 2018 while still a student at the University of Auckland.

The first version of Easy Rent failed and forced him to live in his parents’ garden bungalow, losing $20,000 for his efforts.

After meeting with his mentor, Muralidhar, he devised an improved version and it filled 65 rooms across seven New Zealand cities between September and December 2021.

Montgomerie joined to help bring the platform to a wider audience and the two decided to move to Sydney. They did so with a $230,000 seed round early last year.

When they arrived in Sydney, they tried a series of stunts to advertise EasyRent, says Thomas-Smith.

“None of them work. What worked is when we made it invite-only and it became a ‘friend of friends’ network.

“From April 2022 to May 2023, approximately 5000 people registered or rented and approximately $3.5 million were transferred through EasyRent. That’s $3.5 million in rent savings.”

He said the company charges a 10% management fee and has been profitable for the past four months in Sydney.

“But we realized we couldn’t change the way the world lived without winning America, and we thought we might have some traction there, so we decided to give it a try.”

That caused them to pause their Sydney adventure and head to New York. After the success of the seed round, they are recruiting and preparing to reboot as Kiki.

It will launch in the East Village or Williamsburg first, then roll out to other areas, suburbs one by one.

It’s about building a community-led marketplace, says Thomas-Smith, where people feel comfortable renting out their homes to others.

“This is more about people than property. People don’t like subletting to strangers, and this solves that problem by connecting tenants with tenants with similar interests and hobbies, such as dating apps.”

The invite-only ‘friend of friends’ model, he said, ensures everyone is confirmed and users have to link their Instagram accounts to be accepted.

“People don’t want strangers or weirdos into their homes, so users need to have at least a few Instagram followers and selfies to participate.”

Society is changing, he said, and more and more people are more concerned with how they consume than with profits. “We want to help change that and have big plans to make that happen.”

Kiki set a goal to “win New York in a year,” then raised about $50 million to build its team and expand to 10 US cities, including Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago. and Washington DC. It will then seek to expand globally.