Funding Roundup: Tutti, Habi, Pulppo and Student Rents

The cash is being splashed this January, and today's funding round-up is worth a combined $12M for four promising startups looking to take their offerings to the next level across three continents.

Here they are...

Tutti Gets £300k Cash Injection

Tutti, the London-based marketplace for creative event space booking, has raised £300k to grow its platform—£60,000 more than its £240,000 target.

The funds will go towards investment into the platform, adding additional features, making key hires, and expanding Tutti outside of London.

The crowdfunding event took place in October 2022 with the results announced earlier in January.

Gabriel Isserlis, founder and CEO at Tutti, said:

"I could see first hand the struggles that hosts were having with their own booking system - it was time-consuming, mistakes were made and hosts were spending hours managing the process instead of doing what they do best - handling the human aspect of their business.

"Our powerful software enables booking management to be done in minutes, with effortless enquiries, negotiation and simple, secure online payments."

"We listened to the pain points of event space owners, and it was clear that an alternative booking solution, that is easy to use and understand, transparent, and offers competitive prices with no hidden costs was required.

"Ultimately, Tutti provides just this. A quick and transparent solution to owners, so they can continue to focus on what they do best: creating great spaces for creativity to continue to flourish."

Tutti has been used by organizations including the BBC and ITV to hire creative spaces.

Colombian Startup Habi Secures $6.3M

PropTech Unicorn Habi has raised a credit line worth over $6M with Bancóldex.

Habi will use the credit to strengthen its operations and portfolio in Colombia as it looks towards a prospective IPO in 2024. The startup has already committed to spending more than $250M to buy houses in Colombia in the coming months.

Marcos Kantt, CFO at Habi, told LATAM news publication Bloomberg Línea:

"Many companies in the sector dream or think that this milestone could be true.

"This process has intensified in the last six months. We are already working as a public company. We are not there yet, we are working to be there in the next quarters."

Habi is a classic iBuyer. It offers sellers a quick way to get the liquidity they need by offering to buy their houses based on a valuation from its AVM before renovating and selling the home at a profit. The company also offers its users an end-to-end buyer concierge service which includes discovery, viewing, mortgage brokerage and online paperwork.

Habi also owns two Mexican real estate portals that generate revenue from charging agents to list on them.

Pulppo Secures $5M Seed Funding

Pulppo has raised $5M in seed funding from investors including VC DAAL, Y Combinator, 1984VC and Boost Capital.

The investment will go towards further investment in Pulppo's Mexican operation and expansions into new LATAM markets.

Pulppo is an online broker that offers a complete solution of 11 technological tools that streamline the selling process for agents operating in Mexico. Pulppo's offer promises to sell a property in less than 90 days in a market that can typically take from 9-12 months to sell.

Founded in 2021, Pulppo was chosen to receive funding of at least $125,000 from Y Combinator last June.

Abdulrahman AlQahtani, CEO at DAAL, said:

"DAAL is always looking for outstanding companies that disrupt the market and add value to their space, not only we found that in Pulppo, but we also found an enabler that focuses on the human element and eases things for them.

"We are very excited to be part of Pulppo’s journey and proud of the team’s accomplishments so far. We believe that Matias [Gath] and Agustin [Iglesias] are with no doubt capable of taking the company to the next level, and we are happy to support them in their journey."

Pulppo describes itself as an elite brokerage technology and tool provider. We spoke to Pulppo's co-founder and former Inmuebles24 Country Manager Augustin Iglesias about the company back in March 2022.

Student Rents Crowdfunds £400K+

UK-based Student Rents, the SaaS platform that lets agents advertise properties to students and manage the property, has raised £464,084 (from a target amount of £400,000) from over 150 investors via Crowdcube.

Student Rents has matched 11k tenants and 300+ paying agents since it launched in Edinburgh in 2021, and is already operating in major student accommodation markets including London, Glasgow and Manchester.

The startup publicized revenues of £59k in its first full year of operation and was recognized as the 'Best Student Accommodation Rentals Platform 2022' by IT Awards & UK Enterprise Awards.