This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
MELBOURNE-based proptech start up Rental Heroes has raised $1 million to fund the growth of their artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
The round was led by Australian seed investment group Investible and secure funding from existing investor, global investment management firm, Artesian, as well participation from new investors, including the US-based Hustle Fund and Morten Birk Belling, managing director of Menulog ANZ.
Rental Heroes are pioneering the use of conversational AI to automate the triage and resolution of the number one most time consuming task for residential property managers; tenancy questions and issues. Since first launching in January 2020 with LJ Hooker, Rental Heroes have grown their user base to over 40,000 and their customers include Century 21, First National, Professionals, Raine & Horne and Jellis Craig.
“Driven by increased regulation and COVID-19, the residential property management industry has experienced more change in the last 12 months than the last decade, which has seen property managers rapidly adapt to new systems and processes, presenting a huge opportunity for new software technology,” co-founder and Rental Heroes CEO Ben Burton said.
“This change has also unfortunately seen property managers leave the industry, with almost 9,000 open property management roles advertised in 2021. Business owners and department heads simply cannot fill property manager roles and are looking to AI technology to help fill the gap,” he added.
“Ben and I previously worked in the tech sector gaining skills across mobile device applications, conversational AI and lean software development,” co-founder and Rental Heroes COO Dominik Chmielewski said.
“We also experienced first-hand as tenants how tough a job property management is because you are juggling the interests of tenants, landlords and trades. With so much time spent communicating via phone and email, we thought there must be a better way.” Chmielewski said.
