To improve relations between renters and home providers, WhoseYourLandlord (WYL) has secured new funding.
According to a press release sent to AfroTech, the apartment building review platform has raised an oversubscribed $2.1 million seed funding round.
The round was led by Black Operator Ventures (Black Ops) with participation from New York Ventures, Ben Franklin Tech Partners, and Google’s Black Founders Fund. In addition, some notable angel investors also participated in the round including Diishan Imira (Founder of Mayvenn), Abbey Wemimo & Samir Goel (Founders of Esusu), and Michael Tobin (Founder of Fresh Catch).
“Social impact in real estate hasn’t been something you’ve seen prioritized for companies in the most recent years, but WhoseYourLandlord has found a scalable way to systematically measure, analyze, and operationalize it for landlords and property managers alike,” said James Norman of Black Ops, according to a press release. “Our team has followed Ofo’s company journey over the years and their mission to bring agency to renters will have exponential returns both in business and in community. We’re excited to be a part of this company’s trajectory. They have a revolutionary product and phenomenal product vision that is uniquely positioned to transform the real estate industry and culture. By providing the proper tools to home providers, WhoseYourLandlord will create better living conditions and experiences for their residents.”
WYL Places Humanity At The Forefront
WhoseYourLandlord launched in 2015 and was founded by Ofo Ezeugwu. The ideation of the platform initially stemmed from recognizing clear inequities prevailing in the housing process, AfroTech previously reported.
Ezeugwu believed it was necessary to launch a platform to improve engagement between landlords and residents. Already the company has reviewed 25,000 landlords, property managers, and apartment buildings across 425 U.S. cities.
WYL firmly believes humanity should be at the forefront of housing and profit second. The property technology startup plans to continue strengthening home providers and residents by allocating tools that will aid in better-informed practices and decision-making. More recently, the company launched a new Home Provider software to provide building owners and operators data and predictive analysis. The new resource will improve their retention rates, increase data-driven improvement decisions, and will allow recognition for top-performing home providers in their communities.
WYL Plans To Continue Empowering Renters
As the company looks ahead, it plans to continue to expand its team in the following areas: engineering, product, content, and sales. In addition, it will continue to support investments toward the human first ideology.
“As a founder, you always wish you could have garnered this level of resources sooner, but the other part of me looks at this moment as presenting the most timely opportunity to dramatically shift the housing industry forever,” said Ezeugwu in a press release. “When you see the housing tragedies that occurred in January in the Bronx and in Philly or last summer at Surfside in Miami, you can’t help but think, ‘things don’t have to be this way.’ This funding is going to help WYL lead the movement on residential review technology, empowering renters to give meaningful feedback and bringing actionable insights and data analytics to home providers, helping them to better understand and support their residents.”
