JE Dunn leads $500K round in smart apartment startup Homebase

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.