JE Dunn leads $500K round in smart apartment startup Homebase
July 20, 2017 | Bobby Burch
A handful of Kansas City firms both large and small are partnering to advance smart home technologies.
Blake Miller
JE Dunn Construction Group and Sunflower Development Group have led at $500,000 investment round in Kansas City-based Homebase, a tech firm building an IoT smart apartment and building platform for multi-family properties. Will Winkler of PSW Real Estate, Andrew Brain of Brain Family Development and John Meyer of Lemonly also joined in the round.
Homebase’s app allows tenants to not only pay rent and request maintenance, but also schedule services and tap a plethora of smart home technology that has emerged in recent years. Homebase also enables property managers to remotely manage vacant units’ lighting and thermostats to help with utility costs.
Homebase CEO Blake Miller said the funding adds credibility to the IoT firm as well as scale outside of Kansas City. He added it will also allow the firm to add new engineering and customer support staff.
“I’m really looking forward to improving our residents lifestyle through unique connected services offered via the Homebase platform,” Miller said. “We are a IoT smart home provider, but to me it’s not really about the “things,” like smart locks, as it is the type of experience we can deliver to our residents.
Since February, Homebase has been conducting beta testing of the platform with Marvel Properties in apartment communities around the Kansas City area. Homebase is also designing multiple smart communities concepts that are currently under construction in Kansas City and Austin, Texas, with planned delivery in the second half of 2017.
The Homebase tech is taking on a big market opportunity. Research from the NMMC suggests that the U.S. will need 4.6 million new apartments by 2030.
2017 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Wide Ruled: The future of Kansas schools with education commissioner Randy Watson
Editor’s note: In partnership with the Wide Ruled podcast hosted by Brainroot Light and Sound, Startland News hopes to offer its audience more avenues to learn about innovators in Kansas City. Opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone. Wide Ruled is a Kansas City-based podcast focused on equality in education. Each episode showcases a…
ScaleUP! KC welcomes 16 new entrepreneurs to the program
On Wednesday ScaleUP! KC welcomed 16 new entrepreneurs into its incubator program’s sixth cohort. To qualify, ScaleUP! companies must be in business for at least two years, generate annual sales of between $150,000 and $750,000 and have the potential to reach to $1 million in sales. Startups from the latest cohort represent industries such as…
KC Digital Drive summits aim to catalyze engagement with tech, innovation
Area non-profit, government and tech leaders are planning to help broaden community involvement in the Kansas City metro’s innovation ecosystem. Organized by KC Digital Drive, the Gigabit City Summit: Local Edition — set for June 16 at Plexpod Westport Commons — will offer an immersive look into high-profile initiatives such as the Smart City effort and…
KC startups join Techstars, Amazon and Kickstarter to support net neutrality
Amazon, Kickstarter, Etsy, Mozilla and other tech giants are planning a “day of action” on July 12 to oppose efforts to undo net neutrality regulations by Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai. As national momentum grows, the fight for a free and open Internet already has garnered local support. More than a dozen Kansas City-area…