Placemakr Raises $65 Million for Apartment-Hotel Rental Platform

25.08.2023 - 13:53 / skift.com / Justin Dawes / Jason Fudin

Four travel tech startups have raised nearly $110 million this week. 

>>Placemakr, a platform for long-term and short-term apartment rentals, has raised $65 million in funding. Investors included Highland Capital Partners, Harbert Growth Partners, Bernstein Management Corporation, Camber Creek, Gaw Capital USA, and more.

The Placemakr platform enables developers and owners of multi-unit buildings to rent apartments for long-term and short-term use. Placemakr acts as the operator of the properties it rents. 

Based in Washington, D.C., Placemakr operates 11 multi-unit branded properties in the U.S., according to its website. That includes two recently added: Placemakr Wedgewood Houston and Whyhotel by Placemakr Columbia. Placemakr recently announced a partnership with Bernstein Management Corporation and Urban Atlantic to acquire an office building on K Street in DC and convert it into a hotel-apartment hybrid property. 

The company said it has serviced over $100 million in bookings since the start of the pandemic and has now raised more than $350 million. 

Jason Fudin, CEO and co-founder of Placemakr, believes the success has come from the need to transform underutilized space in city centers as companies have moved away from renting office space and more people are working remotely. 

“The trend of flexible-use housing continues to gain steam as cities adjust to our new travel and living patterns created by remote work. In addition to residential multi-family buildings shifting to mixed hospitality and residential use, we’re also seeing an influx of office conversions as these properties in prime locations continue to sit vacant,” Fudin said in a statement. 

The funding will go toward more property acquisitions and developer partnerships.

Placemakr also said that it has hired Timothy Franzen, former president of Graduate Hotels, as chief development officer, focused on growing the company’s property portfolio across the country through partnerships with real estate owners and developers.

>>Operto Guest Technologies, a hotel tech platform with various products, has raised $25 million in Series B funding. 

It was led by Centana Growth Partners, with participation from Thayer Ventures, FUSE, Blackpines Capital Partners and Derive Ventures.

Operto’s platform enables hotel and vacation rental owners and operators to remotely monitor and manage their properties, with the goal of increasing operations efficiency, lowering costs, and improving the guest experience. The customizable software products can integrate with existing property management software. Products include smartphone-enabled guest verification, check in and check out, digital security deposit and payment, and tech to provide electronic