Boston-based HqO, a startup that makes tenant management software for commercial real estate, raised $34.2 million in a Series B funding round. The round was led by Insight Partners along with participation from the firm's existing investors including Accomplice, Navitas Capital, Pritzker Group Venture Capital and JLL Spark.
This round brings the company's total venture funding to $53 million.
HqO's co-founders include Chase Garbarino, Greg Gomer and Kevin McCarthy, who previously co-founded Streetwise Media, the parent company of BostInno that is now known as American Inno. (Disclosure: Garbarino, Gomer and McCarthy have not been involved with this publication’s day-to-day operations since late 2014, before the author was hired.)
Originally founded as a business messaging platform called VentureApp, the company pivoted to its current business and renamed as HqO in early 2018.
The software is sold to property owners but used by managers. It integrates into a building’s system and gives tenants access from their mobile phone to various things, including building access and garage entry, transportation and shuttle options, visitor registration and conference room booking. It also includes a community directory, messaging functionality, event postings and an analytics system that helps landlords measure how they differentiate from competitors.
Already, HqO’s technology is used in properties including the 4.6-million-square-foot Willis Tower in Chicago.
"Tenant experience is a new category. We launched the first version two years ago and the market quickly became competitive,” Gabarino told BostInno. "The funding gives us more capital than our competitors combined."
HqO competes with apps like Office App, Equiem and The Hive, by Building Engines.
The two-year-old upstart said it will use this capital to work on its product, double its engineering team, grow sales and business operations for national and international expansion. In North America, the company will expand to hubs like Los Angeles and Chicago. Internationally, its offices in London and Paris will see significant expansion and headcount growth.
