Accomplice and Boston Seed led the round with Nicole Stata, General Partner at Boston Seed Capital, joining the board of directors
Knock, the most efficient, complete leasing platform for landlords and management companies, today announced $5 million in seed funding in a round co-led by Accomplice and Boston Seed. With additional participation from angel investors in the cybersecurity space and Hippo co-founder Eyal Navon, the fast-growing company plans to build on its footprint in New York City with smart, integrated modules that simplify every aspect of residential leasing.
“As industries move quickly to self-service, leasing remains tangled in an arduous process that doesn’t make sense for today’s renters that expect a certain level of convenience, speed, and transparency,” said Ryan Moore, founder at Accomplice VC. “Knock is helping landlords save resources and reduce days on market by being the first to combine the convenience of self-touring with a fully integrated leasing solution. This frictionless way to get from finding an apartment and touring it, to signing a lease is the future of residential real estate.”
There’s a growing need to eliminate the friction inherent in the traditional way of leasing. Long vacancy periods and wasted broker time cost property owners and managers $20 billion dollars annually. Unique to the proptech space, Knock is the only one to combine AI bots, self-touring, big data machine learning, and cybersecurity in an end-to-end residential leasing solution. This approach makes leasing 90% more efficient for landlords who can now easily oversee a fast leasing process from one dashboard. Knock’s real-time stats on inquiries, tours, feedback, and applications enables property managers to adjust pricing and make any additional changes to a listing. Knock shortens the time from inquiry to in-person visit to 16 hours on average, with some interactions clocking in at only ten minutes.
“Covid accelerated the demand for efficient and cost-effective leasing processes,” said Erez Cohen, co-founder and CEO at Knock. “Knock used this opportunity to build a suite of end-to-end leasing solutions. We’re extremely proud and excited to see prospects hop out of an Uber in their desired neighborhood, self-tour 30 apartments, no matter the time, with access to both brokers and AI-enabled support to answer questions along the way, and sign a lease within hours. Built on the idea that efficiency is key and transparency is paramount, we believe we’ve developed the interface that will be the new way people rent apartments.”
The Knock team, based in New York City with additional research and development in Israel, will use the new funding to grow their team globally and expand their NYC portfolio. The company has a strong background in real estate, big data, and cybersecurity, making their fast-growing platform and app a must-have as people move back into the most densely populated city in America.
Knock also adds Nicole Stata, General Partner at Boston Seed Capital, to their board of directors. Nicole brings a decade of experience helping Seed stage companies compete in challenging markets. “The Knock team has built an amazing way to streamline the experience of renting,” said Nicole. “Born in the midst of the pandemic, this is a classic case of technology improving on an outsized, and antiquated, problem for consumers. We’re excited to partner with Knock as they continue to help owners and renters.”
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