US: Seattle-based corporate apartment rental startup Domicile has secured $5 million investment.
The company, which rents apartments to businesses clients, is the brainchild of the team at Madrona Venture Labs, a startup incubator owned by the Seattle venture-capital firm.
Ross Saario, Domicile’s chief executive, said that when the venture was launched in late 2016, it was focused on vacation properties but quickly switched to the corporate market. “Looking at the competitive landscape, we decided to refocus on business-to-business, corporate contracts,” he said.
It is looking to fill a niche between long-term corporate lodging for newly relocated employees, and hotels used to house workers in town for shorter stays – offering corporate relocation and travel managers “a one-stop shop”. “Our units are great for two days, two months, two years,” he said.
Domicile doesn’t own any of the apartments for rent on its marketplace. It leases them from developers or property managers, and offers them to corporate clients.
Saario, who previously worked on delivery technology at Amazon, says Domicile could cut down on the need for expensive last-minute hotel bookings.
