Knox Financial, the eight-month-old Boston startup that turns homes into investments by renting them out for the owners, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Greycroft with participation from Pillar VC.
The money will help propel Knox's expansion into new markets over the next 12 months.
Launched in Boston last March with $1.4 million in seed funding, Knox's pilot program had the company overseeing 30 properties in Greater Boston by November.
“In a short amount of time, Knox has put together a world-class team, and demonstrated that there is a substantial market of homeowners who want to turn their homes into investments,” Will Szczerbiak, principal at Greycroft, said in a statement. “Knox is changing how homeowners create wealth and we’re excited to be on their team.”
Knox's flagship product, the Knox Frictionless Ownership platform, automates aspects of generating passive income through rental properties, including financing and refinancing, accounting, tax, legal, insurance, tenant sourcing and communication and property maintenance. Essentially, Knox handles the piles of paperwork behind the rental process for a cut of the returns.
Knox’s proprietary rental pricing and projection model also calculates the cost of operating a home as an investment property, as well as the net cash flow and investment rate of return a property will produce over time, so property owners can decide whether to become landlords. Knox markets its software to homeowners who are ready to move and landlords who want to see better performance from their investments.
The company has partnered with local startup Own Up and Stanton Insurance to offer solutions for securing mortgages and investment property insurance through its platform.
Knox Financial was one of BostInno's 50 on Fire in 2019 and was an Inno Blazer in the early-stage startup category.
