Techstars

Techstars Central LLC, founded in 2006 and based in Boulder, Colorado, operates as a startup accelerator and venture capital firm focused on supporting early-stage technology-oriented companies. It specializes in a mentorship-driven accelerator program, selecting ten startups each summer to participate in a three-month incubation period, offering funding of $120,000 in exchange for equity. Techstars invests primarily in sectors such as fintech, artificial intelligence, blockchain, augmented reality, and IoT, while avoiding investments in medical devices, healthcare technology, and local service-oriented businesses. In addition to its primary accelerator, Techstars has various specialized programs, including those focused on music, retail, mobility, and social impact, with global reach extending to regions such as Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The firm prefers taking minority stakes, typically between six and ten percent, without seeking board representation or investor rights. Techstars has built a robust network of entrepreneurs, mentors, and corporate partners to foster innovation and growth within its portfolio, which includes over 1,000 companies with a significant collective market capitalization.

Ethan Austin

MD of the Techstars Western Union Accelerator

Max Kelly

Managing Director of Techstars London

Lesa Mitchell

Managing Director

Vijay Tirathrai

Managing Director

Mark Tortorella

Advisor

Nathanial Zola

MD

Past deals in Residential

Rent Small Small

Pre Seed Round in 2022
Rent Small Small Ltd. is a prop-tech platform providing a unique rental solution to Nigerians in order to improve home-seekers rental experience and increase home-owners occupancy rate. Our business model is unique as it allows verified tenants to find property on-the-go, stay within budget, and pay rent flexibly. We provide first of its kind rent insurance for property owners against rent default, and unlike traditional agents, we don’t charge agency and legal fee. Our mandate is to provide suitable and affordable homes for home-seekers, influence the conception and birth of new homes to boost the livelihood and productivity of Nigerian youths, and help homeowners to make their property rentable and profitable.

Relive

Pre Seed Round in 2022
Relive is creating a trusted, global brand focused on simplifying the real estate journey, as a digital, transparent and efficient experience. We believe that the real estate industry has been left behind in terms of technology and proper systems to support people looking to buy, sell, or rent a house. We expect simple answers and resources at our fingertips and that is why we are building a digital platform that simplifies and aggregates the real estate journey in a transparent, efficient, but also sustainable & more human way.

Sparen

Pre Seed Round in 2021
Sparen Homes reimagines the real estate process, combining all of its parts — financing, search, walkthrough and inspection, and closing — into one seamless, digital platform.

Better Coliving

Seed Round in 2021
Better Coliving is solving the challenges of financial insecurity and loneliness that many 55+ people face in today's housing market. Better Coliving makes it easy for homeowners to earn income by sharing their homes, and for guests to find naturally affordable housing in neighborhoods they love. The company helps with logistics like listing creation, host and guest matching, background checks/identity verification, and automatic payments. Better Coliving also provides community support and resources to ensure customers have a great experience living together and can meet new friends through the Better Coliving network. Better Coliving was founded in 2020 and is headquartered in Oakland, CA.

ReRent

Pre Seed Round in 2021
ReRent is a developer of a property management platform that enables students to avoid debt and recoup thousands in rent wasted. Its platform creates the listing, prepares the space, welcomes the guests, and cleans up that helps students to monetize their apartment space while they're away.

Upside

Pre Seed Round in 2021
UpsideHōM was founded on a simple premise; to enhance the quality of life for older adults everywhere.

Upside

Seed Round in 2021
UpsideHōM was founded on a simple premise; to enhance the quality of life for older adults everywhere.

Stackhouse

Pre Seed Round in 2021
Stackhouse, LLC is a real estate development company based in Tucson, Arizona, focused on making homeownership more accessible and downtown living affordable. Established in 2017, Stackhouse designs and builds high-quality container houses that serve as eco-friendly, cost-effective, and easily transportable housing solutions. The company offers customizable homes, allowing clients to choose floor plans and appliances to suit their needs. In addition to construction services, Stackhouse assists with relocating homes across the country and provides cable, internet, and parking services. By utilizing shipping containers as a housing option, Stackhouse aims to provide an elevated alternative in response to the rising costs of urban housing.

Homeppl

Seed Round in 2020
Homeppl, Ltd. is a London-based company that offers an internet platform designed to enhance the rental process for both tenants and landlords. Established in 2016, Homeppl provides a digital rental resume through its Homeppl Smart Profile, which helps landlords assess tenant suitability more effectively. By leveraging open banking, financial algorithms, and fraud detection methods, Homeppl enables renters to demonstrate their financial capabilities, thus allowing landlords to make informed decisions and approve more candidates. This approach not only increases revenue for landlords but also reduces the risks associated with renting properties. Homeppl has reviewed numerous transactions and has facilitated significant revenue approvals for its clients in the UK, positioning itself as a key player in the rental market.

Upside

Pre Seed Round in 2020
UpsideHōM was founded on a simple premise; to enhance the quality of life for older adults everywhere.

DwellSocial

Pre Seed Round in 2019
DwellSocial, Inc. operates an online platform designed to connect homeowners with contractors, facilitating home projects and services. Established in 2017 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, the platform enhances user engagement by offering professional referrals from community members, thereby creating job opportunities. Additionally, DwellSocial aggregates demand for meals from local restaurants and organizes restaurant pop-ups in suburban areas, allowing these establishments to extend their service reach. This approach enables restaurants to efficiently serve new customers while benefiting from concentrated orders within the community. By fostering connections between homeowners, contractors, and local businesses, DwellSocial aims to empower neighborhoods and strengthen local economies.

Homeppl

Seed Round in 2019
Homeppl, Ltd. is a London-based company that offers an internet platform designed to enhance the rental process for both tenants and landlords. Established in 2016, Homeppl provides a digital rental resume through its Homeppl Smart Profile, which helps landlords assess tenant suitability more effectively. By leveraging open banking, financial algorithms, and fraud detection methods, Homeppl enables renters to demonstrate their financial capabilities, thus allowing landlords to make informed decisions and approve more candidates. This approach not only increases revenue for landlords but also reduces the risks associated with renting properties. Homeppl has reviewed numerous transactions and has facilitated significant revenue approvals for its clients in the UK, positioning itself as a key player in the rental market.

PadSplit

Seed Round in 2019
PadSplit is an affordable housing tech startup that provides a house-sharing service for the workforce. It offers a platform that aligns incentives among residents, property owners, and communities to make affordable housing possible for the private market. The company uses shared living to make housing more affordable for low-income, empowering them to build savings and transform their lives. Atticus LeBlanc established the company in Atlanta, Georgia in 2017.

Kndrd

Pre Seed Round in 2019
Kndrd is a SaaS solution that's modernizing property management for the CoLiving revolution. This global software also has a global directory, allowing you to find a beautiful & safe home to live at with incredible housemates, anywhere in the world, within a couple of clicks. At Kndrd we create features and solutions rooted in the exploding CoLiving movement. We're answering the call for CoLiving discovery and stewardship by creating a comprehensive and user-friendly platform so CoLiving managers can be more efficient, profitable, and streamlined; all while being more proactive & attentive to their residents and guests. No need to hack together AirBnB, Facebook Messenger, and Excel spreadsheets anymore in order to find the perfect place PLUS the perfect people. We've got it all right here.

SPCE

Pre Seed Round in 2018
Partnered with some of the UK’s top Universities, SPCE connects the higher education community with University specific, student rental properties near campuses. Students and landlords are beset by a host of different issues, as they are under-equipped with the digital tools to cohabit with others from around the world. With SPCE, students can finally build healthy relationships with their roommates and landlords alike – inexpensively. #SimpleStudentLiving For more information, please visit: https://www.liveinspce.com

NODE

Seed Round in 2018
Making zero emission homes thorough a patent-pending system that solves the most acute problems in residential construction. NODE is a housing systems company that is developing a platform to deliver high-quality, turnkey, homes: in 1/10th the time, using 1/10th the people and at 50% of the cost of conventional construction.

PadSplit

Pre Seed Round in 2018
PadSplit is an affordable housing tech startup that provides a house-sharing service for the workforce. It offers a platform that aligns incentives among residents, property owners, and communities to make affordable housing possible for the private market. The company uses shared living to make housing more affordable for low-income, empowering them to build savings and transform their lives. Atticus LeBlanc established the company in Atlanta, Georgia in 2017.

Elumium

Seed Round in 2018
Elumium designs a communication platform that simplifies the process of residential communication. The company's platform provides instant communication, creates a digital guidebook to introduce residents to important information and documents relating to their new home, offers parcel and key management and facilitates cutting edge authentication with digital resident and guest profiles, enabling residents to easily manage their apartments from anywhere and know about important announcements the right way.

Unreal Estate

Pre Seed Round in 2017
At Abode, they all come to work every day because they want to solve the biggest problem in residential real estate. When you buy a home, it is usually the largest transaction of your life to date and the process is stressful and complicated. Home buyers are required to hire a team of professionals to help them get financing, find the best house, get it insured, manage all of the associated paperwork... The list goes on and on. The way this is currently done is manual and antiquated. Their team learned from personal experience that this process was simply too painful in its current form. They saw enough up close and personal to know that much of the stress and confusion could be solved by creating easy-to-use software to guide everyone in the process and enable buyers and the professionals to collaborate in real-time. Throughout the history of real estate, people have used more and more data to make better decisions. Yet in the past, most of that data has been hard to access or even understand as it was held in the hands of the few. Their mission is to make this data more transparent and easy to understand for everybody (not just real estate agents).

Module

Pre Seed Round in 2017
Module Housing, LLC designs and develops adaptable housing solutions. The company develops a wall system and design platform that enables residents to turn a one bedroom starter unit into a three bedroom house. It collects information about the users, and determines the next steps to get users closer to moving into next home. The company offers modules, such as the grown-up, the flat top, the Tom and Jerry, and the moonlighter. The company was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Ownerhood

Seed Round in 2017
Ownerhood is addressing the residential real-estate market failure in large cities. Buying a property has become a “right” reserved for high net worth individuals. Millennials who actually live in those houses, even the ones earning significantly above average, cannot save enough to buy a house. An entire generation of millennials who want to buy a house, simply cannot afford to. With low supply and high demand – chances of them catching up are slim. Ownerhood’s innovation is simple: by breaking properties into smaller tradable slices Ownerhood removes barriers to homeownership and promotes frictionless access to the residential real-estate market via a simple, digital, crowd driven marketplace.

Homeppl

Pre Seed Round in 2017
Homeppl, Ltd. is a London-based company that offers an internet platform designed to enhance the rental process for both tenants and landlords. Established in 2016, Homeppl provides a digital rental resume through its Homeppl Smart Profile, which helps landlords assess tenant suitability more effectively. By leveraging open banking, financial algorithms, and fraud detection methods, Homeppl enables renters to demonstrate their financial capabilities, thus allowing landlords to make informed decisions and approve more candidates. This approach not only increases revenue for landlords but also reduces the risks associated with renting properties. Homeppl has reviewed numerous transactions and has facilitated significant revenue approvals for its clients in the UK, positioning itself as a key player in the rental market.

Urban3D

Seed Round in 2016
Urban 3D is a company creating digital manufacturing technologies for the construction sector willing to solve for houselessness in the next 15 years.Its mission is to partner with governments and developers to eradicate houselessness within the next 15 years.

Trelora

Seed Round in 2015
Trelora, LLC is an online residential real estate service based in Denver, Colorado, with an additional office in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 2011, Trelora offers a platform that facilitates the buying and selling of homes, connecting buyers and sellers directly. The company provides a full-service experience for sellers at a low flat fee and allows buyers to incur no out-of-pocket costs, often receiving an average refund of $7,500 at closing. By blending technology with real estate services, Trelora empowers homeowners and buyers while positioning agents as supportive service providers in the transaction process. The company aims to streamline real estate transactions and enhance efficiency in the market.

inRentive

Seed Round in 2014
inRentive is a cloud-based platform for managing multifamily housing listings and vacancy content, including photos, pricing, and specific unit-level availability. The platform is fully integrated with apartments.com and is also integrated with most major property management software. Users can create, add or edit building, model, and unit level listings; create and manage referral campaigns; post ad to Craigslist in under 30 seconds; and utilize the offered advanced analytics, customizable market rent comparison analyzer, advanced user role management, real-time ""Check Availability"" tool for Facebook, and the reputation management tool. inRentive was founded by Josh Childs, Melissa Moline, and Abram Nelson in August 2012 and is based in Chicago, Illinois, the United States.

House Map

Pre Seed Round in 2013
Property listing iOS app

RentMethod

Pre Seed Round in 2012
We believe renting a home should be enjoyable. Nobody likes playing phone-tag to schedule apartment showings, or the paperwork to put in an application and sign a lease. RentMethod takes away the pains and makes it easy to rent your home. Simply schedule an appointment online and one of our agents will show you through the property. Our website streamlines the process of applying for your favorite home.