An eight-figure capital raise will help Charlotte cleaning startup Rent Ready move beyond North Carolina.
The company announced on Tuesday that it closed a $10 million Series A round, led by Grotech Ventures with participation from previous investors like CreativeCo Capital, as well as six new investors. Charlotte-based startups Payzer and PetScreening are also a part of Grotech's portfolio.
Co-founded in 2016 by Jonathan Kite, Ryan McMillan and Will Brugh, the Charlotte startup was successful in becoming a single-stop go-between for apartment properties in need of turnover services in the Charlotte region, Raleigh-Durham and Atlanta. The startup raised a $1.5 million seed round in 2018.
Kite said Rent Ready will use the funds to scale operations into new markets in new states. He said they expect to double the company's footprint and are targeting two new markets in 2021.
"For us, it's really about growth. We spent a lot of time over the last year refining the business model and technology across the three markets we service," he said. "We have a unique platform and high level of customer retention, and now it's about scaling that out."
It will also invest a portion of the capital into its technology and team expansion. Kite said they're looking to fill more than 20 new positions.
"We're continuing to accelerate investments in our tech platform," he said. "Ultimately, our goal is to provide completely frictionless make-ready processes."
The timing of the raise, Kite said, was intentional.
"The lightbulb that really went off last year was the proven scaleability of our platform," he said. "Being able to take that platform and rapidly expand the service to national clients was that piece of that made us realize this is the perfect time to use this technology and really start to approach more aggressive growth."
