- Ender, an Austin, Texas-based rental property management company, announced it raised $7 million in a seed funding round
Ender, an Austin, Texas-based rental property management company, announced it raised $7 million in a seed round of funding. Global Founders Capital led the funding round with participation from Tuesday Capital, LeFrak, HOF Capital, Cherubic Ventures, Circle Ventures, and several unnamed VC funds and real estate groups.
In an interview with Crunchbase, Ender co-founder and CTO Jason Mirra said that he has not seen an “industry so backward since govtech.” And the company has a goal of helping rental homeowners more efficiently able to handle day-to-day operations of property management like maintenance requests, collect rent, show properties, and manage leasing applications.
And Ender co-founder and CEO Jonathan Lonsdale pointed out that the company is a cohesive platform that benefits property investors and tenants along with vendors by simplifying leasing, payments, accounting, and communication. Lonsdale said that they knew that the company could build better software than what is available, but it needs to integrate directly with existing operations and vendors.
Interestingly, Lonsdale’s brother Joe Lonsdale is also an entrepreneur as he is the co-founder of Palantir. And Joe Lonsdale and Mirra had previously founded an investment management company called Addepar.
Ender is also focused on integrating smart home technology in all of the rental units that its platform helps manage. And the company is also working on building out technology that will integrate with smart locks, water leak sensors, motion sensors, and other smart home integrations. Plus the company’s vetted vendors working within the Ender platform are able to access units through the platform.
As of now, Ender is focused on single-family homes. But the company is planning to branch into multifamily. Next year, Ender is planning to release a software-only product for owners and property managers. The company also offers a “Smart Leasing” service, which offers the ability to schedule self-showings and an option to send applications online. Plus the company can process credit and background checks.
