Here raises $5M to expand vacation rental investment platform

The Miami-based startup enables users to make fractional investments – as low as $100 – into real estate properties in vacation destinations.

By Riley Kaminer

Homeownership – a core tenet of the American dream – is increasingly out of reach for many Americans. Down payments, inflation, and high interest rates make purchasing a home more difficult, especially for younger generations.

While the white-picket-fenced, single-family-home dream may not be realistic, there are still ways for the average person to reap the financial rewards from home ownership: namely appreciation and rental income. Miami-based startup Here is doing just that.

Here has developed a platform that enables users to make fractional investments into real estate properties in vacation destinations. With a minimum investment of $100, investors can own a piece of properties like an oceanside getaway or a mountain retreat. Millennial and Gen Z age brackets are particularly switched on to the value of owning properties in travel destinations. Combined, those two generations are predicted to make up 75% of all U.S. travel spend by 2025.

Today, Here announced that they have raised a $5 million seed round led by Fiat Ventures, with participation from Joe Montana’s Liquid 2 Ventures, Mucker Capital, Basecamp Ventures and Cooley. 

Corey Ashton Walters, Here’s founder and CEO, told Refresh Miami that the primary use of these funds will be to expand into 20 new destinations. It has already begun expansion into three of those markets: Big Bear, California; Clearwater, Florida; and Gatlinburg, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains.

“With this seed round, we will focus on market expansion and launching new markets and new properties to meet the investor demand that we’re currently seeing,” said Walters. Walters said that raising this round was relatively straightforward, considering that many of Here’s investors from their $2 million pre-seed earlier this year followed on to this round.

“Vacation rentals are an investment opportunity that historically has only been available to the wealthy,” investor Adam Nash noted in a statement. Nash is the CEO and co-founder of Daffy and former CEO of Wealthfront – both consumer-facing finance and investment platforms.

“Here has created a seamless and simple way for everyday investors to participate in this market, and supporting their mission to open up this opportunity to everyone was an easy decision,” Nash continued.

Democratizing access to high-quality real estate investments

Since launching earlier this year, Here has onboarded over 30,000 members. That’s twice the amount of users it had around the time of its pre-seed launch.

What’s the source of this rapid growth? Walters said it’s hard to pin down just one reason. But he signaled that, broadly speaking, consumers are looking for solid investment options amidst our current macroeconomic uncertainty.

“We’re living through a moment of shock – in the stock market, with inflation,” said Walters. “Anywhere you put your money, it feels like it just goes straight down.” 

“So I think people are scared of where to put their money, and real estate seems safe,” continued Walters. “And in Here’s case, we make it easy for the average person to invest in real estate – specifically vacation rentals, which have been an incredible inflation hedge.”

With financial products like REITs, consumers don’t have much control over what they’re actually investing in. Here stands in contrast to that offering by empowering users to pick the exact properties they want to invest in.

“We do the heavy lifting of identifying the property, making it look beautiful, making it perform well. And making sure it’s in a market that we believe is like long term growth,” said Walters. For Here’s consumers, that makes the investment process as simple as a yes or no decision on a particular home. 

The only problem? Perhaps the best one for a startup to have: too much demand. Here launches a new house on the platform each week. Walters said that their most recent property sold out in just five hours. “It’s a good signal, but still a problem because you have average people that are unable to get access,” he explained.

Plans for future growth

Going forward, Walters is excited by the prospect of continuing to offer more properties on Here’s platform. Market expansion plays a key role in this, he noted: “With market expansion comes the ability to unlock additional supply for our investors on the platform.”

Apart from the 20 destinations in Here’s immediate roadmap, Walters is exploring the possibility of offering international investment opportunities as well. “How cool would it be if you could own shares of something like a chateau in France that will produce cashflow,” he said. The world is Here’s oyster: Walters plans to investigate entering vacation housing markets in Europe, Latin America, and Asia.

Here will also use this seed fundraise to triple their team size, which currently sits at seven full-time employees. Walters is a Space Coast native who returned to Florida during the pandemic after having spent years living near Portland. He is currently the only Florida-based employee, but Walters expressed an interest in expanding the team locally. “It’s probably the best time to be building a business in Florida.”

Here and its investors own a share in all of the properties on the platform. While the startup doesn’t have immediate plans to go into the development of new properties, Walters did not rule it out going forward. 

Will Here make a web3 play? “I’d be lying if I said I don’t think about it,” Walters admitted. Still, he said that it is very hard to go from being a non-web3 project to a web3 project. That’s especially true for Here because they are subject to strict SEC regulation.

“But I’m a dreamer, so I love all these web3 projects,” he said.

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