Proptech platform Till raises $8 million in seed funding to help renters pay and stay in their homes
As coronavirus pandemic continues to spread across the country with no sign of abating, millions of Americans are without jobs and many are struggling to pay their rents and mortgages. Till is a Washington, D.C.-based fintech platform with products aimed at preventing evictions and the outdated practices that lead to them.
Essentially, Till is aiming to reinvent the traditional rent cycle – rather than having rent universally due on the 1st, they’re able to analyze a renter’s cash flow and break their payments up into smaller bites that will work best for them to make their payments. This is critical today when income volatility is high due to unemployment, reliance on the gig economy, and other factors.
Today, Till announced that it has closed an $8-million seed funding round to continue the growth of the platform and fuel adoption by landlords and renters across the country. The round was led by Route 66 Ventures, MetaProp and NextGen Venture Partners.
Founded in 2017 by Brady Nolan, Dan Buechler, and David Sullivan, Till offers a financial platform serving the residential real estate rental industry. Till is a provider of Flexible Rent, a product that transforms the renters’ housing experience with personalized solutions. Its proprietary platform provides a detailed analysis of renter cash flow and expenses to break payments into smaller, more manageable increments throughout the course of the month. For landlords, Till provides the ability to provide personalized payment services for their renters, along with advanced property analytics to guide their asset management strategy.”
The analytics-driven platform, which was introduced in April 2020, is expected to cut evictions by as much as 50 percent, helping renters avoid punitive late fees that damage their long-term financial health. Because of the acute issue that Flexible Rent can solve, the platform has already been rolled out to 170 properties comprising 30,000 units in 14 states, and has been adopted by up to 30% of renters at some of these properties.
“Every year, millions of renters and families are evicted from their homes, due in part to rent servicing strategies that have failed to evolve to the ways people earn and spend money in the 21st century. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread across the country, mass unemployment and other economic fallout is threatening to push those numbers even higher,” said Till Founder and CEO David Sullivan. “At Till, our mission is to enable renters to thrive in their homes by radically transforming rent into a positive and personalized financial experience. We partner with institutional landlords to help them bridge the often challenging landlord-renter relationship. With the backing of Route 66 Ventures and other investors, we are now in prime position to expand our platform and fully reimagine the way Americans rent their housing.”
“Since we first learned about Till, we have been extremely impressed by its ability to bridge the gap between the increasingly volatile income and expense patterns of renters and the more rigid financial realities of landlords,” said Zak Schwarzman, General Partner at MetaProp. “As the uncertainty wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic and related economic fallout continues with no clear end in sight, it’s more important than ever that landlords find new, mutually beneficial, ways to work with renters to reduce late fees, minimize evictions and foster renters’ long-term financial health. Till provides a perfect solution that helps solve these challenges for both sides of the market, and we are proud to back them as they enter the next phase of their growth.”
The company has formed partnerships with numerous leading real estate owners and property management companies, including First Communities, TM Associates, Redwood Capital Group, ACRE, and Landmark Property Services.
“Till has completely altered the way we approach rent collection, but more importantly, it has improved our fundamental relationship with our residents,” said Les Menkes, managing partner of ACRE. “By taking a more personalized approach with each of our units, we’ve been able to significantly reduce turnover at our buildings and get a more comprehensive, accurate view of our revenue stream. We’ve also been able to avoid imposing penalties on our renters, putting them in better financial health and ensuring better long-term stability to our business.”