Membership-based leasing platform Landing uses $20M Series A round to expand to Chicago

Greycroft led the funding round, with participation from Maveron and Abstract Ventures

Landing CEO & founder Bill Smith and one of Landing's apartments at 30 E. Adams St.
Landing CEO & founder Bill Smith and one of Landing's apartments at 30 E. Adams St.

Landing, a San Francisco-based apartment leasing platform, has raised $20 million in a funding round as it expands to three new cities, including Chicago.

Greycroft led the $20 million Series A funding round, with participation from Maveron and Abstract Ventures. In addition to the Series A funding, Landing received $10 million in a debt facility.

The company started with $15 million from CEO and founder Bill Smith in June, bringing the total to $35 million in funding so far.

Landing offers long-term yet flexible membership-based leasing across its network of fully-furnished studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments. Annual memberships cost $199, in addition to monthly rent.

In the company’s early days, it signed leases with building owners, furnished the units, and then sublet them to tenants. Now it’s partnering with building owners under more of a management model and sharing revenue with them.

When it publicly launched in November, Landing started in six cities: Austin; Birmingham, Alabama; Los Angeles; Nashville; New York; and San Francisco. Now it’s available in nine cities with the expansion into Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Boston.

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Landing typically focuses on newer Class A buildings in urban markets.

In Chicago, it’s currently offering units in five buildings in the River North and the Central, West and South Loops, with monthly rents starting at more than $2,000, according to the website. The buildings are Cedar Street Companies’ Alfred at 30 E. Adams Street, Russland Capital Group’s 1407 Michigan Avenue, MetLife’s 215 West Washington, Cedar Street’s Ardus at 676 N. LaSalle Drive, and LaSalle Investment Management’s JeffJack Apartments at 601 W. Jackson Blvd.

With the infusion of capital, Landing plans to grow its presence to 30 cities by the end of 2020.

Chicago has been a hotbed for real estate technology startups in recent years. Several of those prop tech companies even started in Chicago, including property management system Livly, which was launched nearly a year ago by Cedar Street Companies and Flats Chicago founder Alex Samoylovich.

Other firms like master lease co-living startup Bungalow, which is also based in San Francisco and provides a similar product, have also expanded in Chicago. Shortly after raising $14 million in a Series A funding round, Bungalow choose Chicago as its eighth market at the end of 2018.