Zazume advances in its objective of bringing residential rental management tools, previously only available to large landlords, closer to small property owners. With the aim of boosting its commitment to AI, strengthening its market position, and increasing its services, the proptech has closed a 2.3 million euro financing round, led by Sabadell Venture Capital and Nordstar, among other investors.
The Barcelona-based company has closed this operation after tripling its revenues during 2024, a year during which it achieved another milestone: reaching profitability in both EBITDA and cash flow, following growth driven by a model that combines AI-based technology with financial services, focusing on small property owners, who represent 95% of the rental market at a national level.
It was focusing on these owners and shifting from vacation rentals to residential rentals that planted the seed for Zazume. Jeroem Merchiers came from the general management of Airbnb for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, where he witnessed the rapid digitalization process of short-term rentals in less than a decade, without the same happening in long-term rentals. "We feel comfortable booking houses on the other side of the world without seeing them, and yet residential is the opposite and is very little digitized," Merchiers emphasizes. In the midst of the pandemic, he presented the idea to entrepreneur Guillermo Ceballos, and both focused on launching Zazume.
The startup materialized in 2021 with the aim of offering tools that digitize the entire medium and long-term rental process, with real-time information on the status of each payment and possible incidents in each property. These tools encompass the entire process, from tenant search to guaranteeing monthly payments and incident management.
Thus, Zazume is responsible for publishing homes on digital portals and scheduling visits, which are carried out through a network of 500 collaborating real estate agents. The platform, which also facilitates contract signing, guarantees the collection of rent on the same day of each month, regardless of delays or non-payments by the tenant, through a service that entails a cost of between 4% and 10% of the rent for the owner.
In addition, the platform facilitates the management of repairs and renovations by assuming the initial costs and offering financing options to owners, advancing them up to three years of rent, in a new service that they will promote with the 2.3 million raised in the round, as Merchiers highlighted.
The company, which closed another 2.5 million round in 2021, has managed some 2,000 properties to date, tripling the previous year's figures in 2024. As Merchiers anticipates, the goal is to reach 10,000 in the next two years, in a context where there are three million rental homes in Spain. Thus, the platform has room to grow and will maintain its focus on its native market, at least for these next two years.