Brooklyn coliving startup, Common, scores $16M to expand to SF, DC

Today Common, the coliving startup for modern nomads, announced a $16 million Series B round. Common was founded by General Assembly co-founder Brad Hargreaves in 2015 and officially opened its first coliving space in Crown Heights, Brooklyn back in October.

Written by Taylor Majewski
Published on Jun. 15, 2016

Today Common, the coliving startup for modern nomads, announced a $16 million Series B round.

Common was founded by General Assembly co-founder Brad Hargreaves in 2015 and officially opened its first coliving space in Crown Heights, Brooklyn back in October. The company rents out apartment buildings and sublets rooms in shared suites for a minimum of 90 days. After that, renters can move out as they please, or hop around to different Common locations.

“Common members can move between open rooms at Common with 24 hours' notice as long as they have stayed in their current room for at least 30 days,” said Common’s founder, Brad Hargreaves. “This includes movement between cities. By enabling seamless transfers within Common, we are creating a better housing experience, enabling flexibility that doesn't involve breaking leases, finding subletters, paying brokers' fees and losing security deposits.”

Since launching the company opened additional spaces in Crown Heights and Williamsburg, with a third Crown Heights location slated to open in July. With the new funding, Common also shared it will be expanding to San Francisco and Washington DC by the end of the year.

The new financing was led by 8VC, Circle Ventures (the technology arm of the Milstein Family), LeFrak, Solon Mack Capital, Inevitable Ventures and Wolfswood Partners. The company plans on using the funding to build its community and operating teams in San Francisco and Washington DC as well as invest in technology that makes the member experience stronger and more community-driven.

Since launching back in October, Common has received over 5,000 applications from people interested in becoming residents in the coliving spaces.

“Enabling seamless movement between major cities will fundamentally change how people think about finding a place to live,” said Hargreaves. “As all Common homes are furnished and regularly cleaned and include shared kitchen and bathroom supplies and utilities, we're removing many of the annoying parts of moving into a new home.”

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