NEW YORK—Life House, a tech-enabled lifestyle hotel company, has closed on a $30-million Series B funding.
The investment was led by Thayer Ventures, with Tiger Global, JLL Spark, and Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary’s Sound Ventures among others. Several strategic investors also participated in the round, including the former chairman of Morgans Hotel Group, David Hamamoto, and Jim Ketai—the founder of Bedrock Detroit and the owner of Detroit’s Shinola Hotel. The round also included follow-on investments from the company’s prior investors Global Founders Capital, Comcast Ventures and Trinity Ventures.
After a successful launch, Life House is quickly becoming one of the fastest-growing hotel brands and management companies in North America, with more than 800 beds today and 25 hotels expected to be open and operating by early next year, the company reports.
The company’s platform is driving more than 40% increases in revenue, reducing operating costs as much as 45% and achieving more than 65% of its bookings direct on its website. It has secured hundreds of millions of third-party real estate capital to continue fueling its asset-light growth.
In addition to its growth, Life House is already profitable at the unit level and with this new financing, the company plans to grow into new markets, launch new brands in other consumer price segments, continue to innovate to build sustainable competitive advantages and to reach corporate profitability in the next 18-24 months.
“The hotel industry is broken, leaving hotel owners with painfully unprofitable hotels and travelers with expensive or suboptimal hotel experiences,” said Rami Zeidan, founder/CEO, Life House. “Most of these problems are solved with software, while others are solved with innovation in the supply chain of our services.”
“We, like many other investors, were immediately enamored with the company and team that Rami has built,” said Chris Hemmeter, managing partner, Thayer Ventures. “Our connections and LP-base in the hotel space are deeply rooted, and after a thorough vetting, we became even more excited. We’re very excited to be partnering with Rami and his team and we’re pleased that they recognized our value-add and selected us to lead at the prudent terms we offered.”
Patricia Nakache, general partner, Trinity Ventures, added, “We are excited to continue our support of Life House as it expands its portfolio of boutique hotel properties that leverage technology to deliver aspirational travel experiences at affordable prices. Rami’s deep expertise in the hospitality industry gives him a unique perspective on how to modernize travel for guests and property owners alike.”
“Life House is an excellent addition to JLL Spark’s portfolio, offering authentic travel experiences to hotels and their guests and using software to reduce the costs of the operation,” said Kitty Sullivan, JLL Spark. “The Life House team is incredibly impressive and its scalable, asset-light strategy is poised to sustainably bring new value—and new levels of profitability—to the hotel industry.”
