Co-living, the concept of numerous residents who typically have a common set of interests or intentions sharing a living space, recently received a strong vote of confidence in the form of the $10 million series B funding at a $100 million valuation that Los Angeles-based startup company Tripalink secured. The company completed the third funding round within 10 months, and now has a total funding amount of $20 million.
Tripalink is a co-living company that offers move-in-ready homes for all its community members with two product lines, U-Living (the company works with small and mid-sized developers to create and manage co-living spaces) and V-Living (co-living projects Tripalink develops on its own).
By the end of 2019, the number of V-Living products will reach 15. Tripalink independently designs and develops the product lines itself based on the company’s understanding of co-living lifestyle and customer insights analysis. The company currently has co-living spaces in Los Angeles, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Irvine, Austin and Philadelphia. Tripalink expects to reach 20,000 community members in 2020 and looks to expand into 30 cities.
“The capital of developing V-Living comes from self-established REITs (Real Estate Investment Trust), which values around $60M,” Tripalink CEO Donghao Li said in a release.
Prior investors such as Calin SJG Fund, L.P, K2vC, Tekton Ventures contributed to this funding round as well as a new investor, Oriza Venture. The fund will mainly be used for market expansion, according to Li.
In the five months following the previous funding round, Tripalink put its focus on brand and product upgrading. The company expanded its target from young students to young professionals. When they strategy proved to be successful, Tripalink moved into four new cities with localization plans. The fact that numerous firms have invested in multiple funding rounds shows the capital market is optimistic about Tripalink’s prospects and the co-living industry as a whole.
Tripalink says it currently offers more bed space than other co-living companies as well as a greater customer lifetime value and a more agile business model, courtesy of years of co-living industry research. The company’s leadership also comprises millennials that speak six languages, which allows it to resonate with the younger market that’s more likely to embrace a co-living situation.
“Tripalink also solved the pain points of small and medium real estate developers in the United States,” Li said in a statement. “In fact, they own the most developable landscape but are not able to maximize the profits due to lack of centralized property management. Tripalink actively cooperates with small and medium developers and provides unified brand image and management for them, which increases our housing resources explosively.”
