Germany: Coliving company Habyt has merged with a competitor and closed a large series B round of funding.
Recently, Habyt secured a €20 million Series B round of funding, which was backed by HV Capital, Vorwerk Ventures, P101 and Picus Capital.
Partner at HV, Felix Kluehr, said: “We are happy to see that Habyt has emerged as the leading player in the European co-living market and HV is excited to support the team in their ambitious plan to build the leading European co-living company.”
Additionally, the company has merged with Homefully, a competitor in the coliving sector. Homefully, founded in 2016, will work with Habyt in their newly merged state to provide fully furnished and serviced units with focuses on guest technology and community.
Founder of Homefully, Sebastian Wuerz, said: “The co-living market is going through a consolidation phase and Habyt has really seized this opportunity quickly and effectively and is on the best track to become the leader of the sector at a global scale. Joining forces is a crucial step in this direction and I am very excited for the team to be part of this journey.”
The newly merged companies plan to target young professionals who move around frequently. The company’s design will allow guests to move back and forth between different Habyt properties across Europe through a monthly subscription model.
Luca Bovone, founder and CEO of Habyt, said: “It’s like a member’s club. We have a subscription model, where people pay a monthly fee, which is your rent, and then you can, of course, apply for a room somewhere else and know that we have a fairly decent scale across Europe and eventually, also in southern Europe. You are able to move from one place to the other. Our motto is live anywhere.”
Bovone explained that throughout the pandemic he observed that people were leaving coworking spaces and were willing to pay more for housing to work comfortably at home. He has also observed that his business model allows guests to comfortably move around Europe from month to month in ways that would not be possible otherwise.
Bovone said: “We are already seeing within our customer base, they want to stay six months in Berlin, three months in Madrid, then move back to Berlin and so on. The traditional housing market just doesn’t allow that to happen. You have contracts with utilities and so on, which you can never break and it’s just an outdated product offering, and we’re trying to tackle that.”
Habyt has taken over large portions of the coliving sector in Europe since its founding in 2017. With the new merger, the company now operates more than 5,000 units across 15 cities and six countries, with plans for expansion on the horizon.
Bovone said: “We have been on an incredible journey in the past year and a half. In spite of less than perfect market conditions we have been able to grow a lot via a very successful M&A strategy that brought us into the position of leaders of our sector in Europe and that still has a lot of potential. This €20 million series B round really opens our doors to keep building Habyt both via organic growth and via more M&As. We are now looking at strategic targets in Europe, specifically in France and Italy, and also in other continents, especially in Asia.”
