Adam Neumann is back.
In his first venture since leaving WeWork last year, Neumann is investing $30 million in Alfred Club, Inc., a startup that provides services — such as dog-walking, maintenance requests and rent-processing — in apartment buildings, Bloomberg News reported.
Neumann’s family investment office, through an LLC, led the most recent $42 million funding round. Alfred has now garnered nearly $100 million in investments and operates in more than 100,000 apartment units.
The startup has previously received investments from Greystar, one of the largest apartment owners in the country, which was sued in May for compiling dossiers on prospective tenants. Spark Capital and New Enterprise Associates have also provided capital.
Neumann has stayed out of the spotlight after he exited WeWork last year, although he maintained significant profit interests in the company. The beleaguered co-working firm reached a valuation of $47 billion at its peak, but in SoftBank’s most recent earnings call, the company disclosed that figure now stands at $2.9 billion.
WeWork, which its chairman Marcelo Claure said was on track to be profitable in 2021, has shifted to cost-cutting measures during the pandemic, including divesting its China division and slashing 8,000 jobs. It’s also contending with a glut of availability in New York City.
Alfred, with its focus on providing services for residents, shares some elements with WeLive, Neumann’s concept for expanding beyond office space. It was ultimately implemented in only two buildings.
Alfred CEO Marcela Sapone and Neumann have described their businesses in similar terms. Neumann frequently referred to WeWork’s management services as its “WeOS,” while Sapone told Bloomberg News that Alfred “is the operating system for what we think are next-generation buildings that are looking at themselves as a true home rather than a sterile apartment building.”
[Bloomberg News] — Georgia Kromrei