Today marks an exciting day for the Doorstead team and another step on our mission to enhance property management. We officially announce our Series B funding round of $21.5 million, with participation by Avanta Ventures, Madrona, MetaProp, and M13. We have also acquired Knox Financial’s Massachusetts portfolio, allowing us to expand our services to homeowners and renters on the East Coast.

Doorstead’s founding story

Doorstead was founded in April 2019 by co-founders Ryan Waliany, who led a growth and AI team at Uber, and Jennifer Bronzo, whose family ran a construction and real estate firm. Ryan and Jennifer experienced the property management industry's operational shortcomings firsthand and decided to build a new property management system with a rental guarantee.

Today, Doorstead is the largest provider of upfront rental guarantees and the only property management service that provides homeowners with an upfront vacancy period and a guaranteed minimum monthly rent before a tenant is placed. Doorstead provides full-service property management, from getting a property rent-ready to conducting showings and screening tenants, inspecting the property, taking care of maintenance requests, and more.

Real estate market data from the past few years show that extended periods of tenant occupancy drastically drive down profits for homeowners. Doorstead addresses this opportunity gap by reducing tenant placement time and adding an upfront guarantee to reduce financial risk further.

Doorstead mitigates the high opportunity costs of vacancy, creating more optimal outcomes for homeowners and renters, and saving millions of dollars of economic waste in the residential property model.

Doorstead’s journey to date

Doorstead was founded to bring a service guarantee to residential property management. In late 2019, we raised a $3.3 million seed round led by Santa Monica-based M13. We then raised a $12.5 million Series A round led by Seattle firm Madrona Venture Group.

Today, over 2,000 property owners have relied on Doorstead to care for homes and renters and generate consistent rental income. Learn about how Doorstead works.

Some of the achievements we’re most proud of are:

• Doorstead has grown consistently 3x year-over-year, and its guarantee model has thrived amidst COVID-19 fluctuations and multiple macroeconomic cycles.
• Doorstead properties are collectively valued at over $1.5B and generated over $50M in annualized rent for owners across over 30,000 rental offers
• Doorstead has managed single-family homes, condominiums, and multi-family units across eight metro regions, with a network of over 400+ home service professionals and field agents.

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About our Series B round

Our Series B round includes investments by Avanta Ventures and MetaProp, and participation from existing investors M13 and Madrona. As part of this round, Steve Bernardez, partner at Avanta Ventures, will join Doorstead’s board of directors. This round brings our total funding to $37 million.

MetaProp and Avanta Ventures are new investors in our Series B round. With their backing, we are well-positioned to continue scaling our technology and expanding into new markets to provide homeowners and renters with the best possible property management experience.

From Steve Bernardez, Partner at Avanta Ventures:

"Avanta looks forward to supporting Doorstead’s growth as they add new products and services for real estate investors with more than $3.7 trillion in rental assets, I’m excited to work with them as a board member to further their mission to reimagine property management and significantly reduce the complexity and risk of owning rental properties.”

From Zach Aarons, co-founder and general partner of MetaProp:

"Doorstead is one of the most data-driven companies we have seen within our industry. We like how the company is improving existing property management business models through operational efficiency and best-in-class software. Because of Doorstead's focus on market-by-market rental data, the company is able to offer an upfront rental guarantee to landlords, redefining the old paradigm.“

Acquisition of Knox Financial’s Massachusetts portfolio

Knox Financial was co-founded in 2018 by David Friedman and Keith Cline. Based in Boston, MA, Knox Financial assists homeowners in renting out their property and then handles every aspect of investment property ownership. Knox focused on helping owners turn a home into an investment property delivering passive income.

We are thrilled about continuing our national expansion by acquiring Knox Financial’s Massachusetts portfolio. Doorstead and Knox shared a common goal of providing frictionless access to income from long-term rental properties. This acquisition was key in helping us expand our operations to the East Coast, immediately serving hundreds of tenants and owners in Massachusetts.

From David Friedman, Co-founder of Knox Financial:

“Over the last few years, Doorstead has emerged as one of the most successful companies in tech-enabled property management, giving investment property owners across the U.S. the easiest way to build wealth through their properties. Knox's customers are in great hands with the Doorstead team, and I look forward to seeing the company grow and succeed in the coming years.”

Our team and founders greatly respect David and his team and what they’ve built, and we’re excited to keep building upon their legacy.

Next steps in Doorstead’s journey: enhancing the property management industry

The latest round of funding further supports our expansion across the U.S. and invests in new product development. As we move forward in 2023 and beyond, we will focus on:

• Investing in technology innovation to better augment and automate our business

We will invest augmenting and automating our operations to ensure homeowner success by filling vacancies faster and maintaining high rent-ready and property standards to improve the tenant experience.

• Developing additional services and products to serve a variety of properties‍

We will add new home services to modernize rental inventory and meet homeowner needs. Doorstead will expand services for different property types, such as multi-family units, townhouses, ADUS, and condominiums, and for tenant-occupied units.

• National expansion of Doorstead’s platform to increase service coverage

Following our Boston expansion, Doorstead will continue market expansion with a focus on premium rental markets across the United States.

Our gratitude to everyone who has contributed to our journey

Doorstead’s growth comes at an important time when there is more financial uncertainty in our financial markets and higher volatility in real estate prices.  With strong property management, homeowners can improve their investment returns while receiving a hand-off and hassle-free experience.

We want to give a huge thank you to our team, customers, and investors for your continued support. Thank you for your continued contribution and support.

We look forward to all 2023 brings and the journey ahead.

For more information on the news, read more on TechCrunch.

Have questions regarding our Series B? Please email [email protected]. For resources on property management or renting, visit the Doorstead blog.