Danke Apartment, a Beijing-based online long-term apartment rental platform, is nearing completion of a new round financing from several investors including Tiger Global, at a value of USD 1.5 billion.
someone familiar with the matter told EqualOcean that Danke Apartment (Eggshell Apartment, Danke Gongyu, 蛋壳公寓), a Beijing-based online long-term apartment rental platform, is nearing completion of a new round financing from several investors including Tiger Global, at a value of USD 1.5 billion.
Founded in early 2015, Danke Apartment is an internet company using mobile and big data to transform the traditional housing rental industry, and providing relatively better housing rental services to white-collar workers in big cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and so on. As of November 2018, Danke Apartment claimed it had operated 250,000 apartments and expected to reach 300,000 by the end of 2018.
Danke Apartment has closed two rounds financing this year. In February, the company secured a USD 100 million series B fundraising led by Gaorong Capital (formerly Banyan Capital) and CMC Capital; in June, Danke Apartment finished a USD 70 million series B+ financing led by Tiger Global, at a value near USD 1 billion.
Danke Apartment has been developing surprisingly fast in last year; the company only operated less than 80,000 apartments as of December 2017, and now the number nearing 300,000, which a huge increase could only be achieved by burning money. The business model of Danke Apartment, just like its competitors Ziroom (自如) and Xiangyu (相寓), is that the company first needs to acquire apartments by signing a long-term (5-10 years) lease with the owners and pays the owners in advance, then renovates the apartments before renting to individual white-collar workers.
GAO Jing (高靖), founder and CEO of Danke Apartment, said in the next few years, there would be two to three super unicorns (valued more than USD 10 billion) in China's long-term apartment market, with each operates over 1 million apartments. SHEN Boyang (沈博阳), formerly worked as the president of LinkedIn China, now the executive chairman of Danke Apartment said that the burst of long-term rental apartment market would come soonly. Hence, to expand the market share will be the primary strategy for both Danke Apartment and other players.
As of May 2018, Danke Apartment had 2,000 employees, and now the company has more than 5,000 in nationwide. The series C financing is expected to be completed in the next one month or two.