Apartment and home rental company Zeus Living has gained $55 million in a Series C round of funding, bringing the startup's raised total to $125 million, the company confirmed.
The company plans to use the funding to grow its portfolio and add new features and services.
Zeus Living started as a solution for corporate housing needs, focused on stays of 30 days or longer. The company always had planned to expand that audience beyond corporate clients, and now also is geared toward "FlexLiving"—its new category of housing that "prizes ease and flexibility," especially as more individuals are "chasing new experiences and having flexibility and mobility in how they live," according to a company statement.
"Before the pandemic, only about 7 percent of U.S. workers worked full-time at home," according to the company. "Now, the number is close to 50 percent of all workers. At Zeus Living, 95 percent of our team want flexibility to work remotely, which is what we see nationally. The remote work trend is here to stay, and this means a long-term need for flexibility housing."
"The pandemic accelerated trends, allowing us to fulfill our vision more quickly," said a company spokesperson in an email. For 2021, about 20 percent of the company's revenue has been from business-to-business sources.
During the height of the pandemic, Zeus Living, like many hospitality companies, laid off much of its staff. But the company seems to have bounced back. By year-end, Zeus Living will offer about 5,000 apartments and homes compared with about 2,400 in 2019, and it currently operates in 96 U.S. cities, including Austin, Denver, Miami, Nashville, Philadelphia and San Diego.
Zeus Living confirmed that it has about 87 percent occupancy year-to-date, and 2021 revenue per available room has increased 21 percent compared with 2020. It still requires a minimum 30-day stay for rentals, but with flexible start and end dates. The company has seen an increase in residents booking leases with no predetermined end date, with an average stay of 129 nights.
SIG led this round, with participation from Initialized Capital, CEAS Investments, TI Platform Management, NFX, Opendoor CEO and co-founder Eric Wu and Miras. Its Series B round included Airbnb as an investor.