KeyNest expands financial backing with leading estate agency LiFE Residential

KeyNest, the UK-wide network of key exchange points for Airbnb hosts, serviced accommodation providers and lettings agents, has announced the closing of their second funding round.

KeyNest solves the pain point of time-wasting and insecure key handovers between different user groups such as host and guest, agent and tenant or contractor, busy residents, and cleaners. With KeyNest, keys can be dropped in any of its partner locations, and then securely picked up by providing a single-use code. KeyNest’s software also allows the user to track all keys (whether they are inside the office or outside with a guest or staff member) in real-time.

LiFE Ventures, the prop tech investment division of LiFE Residential, and Cris Young (CFO Smedvig Capital and interim CFO Veeve, London’s largest serviced apartment management company) have joined the existing group of investors to further strengthen KeyNest’s expertise in the serviced accommodation and real estate sectors.

"KeyNest has already proven its huge value-add to serviced apartment operators. We are now investing because key management and key exchanges sometimes can be challenging for estate agents – something KeyNest can finally solve. We are confident that lost keys and expensive key exchange processes will be a thing of the past thanks to KeyNest,” said Jonathan Werth, Managing Director at LiFE Residential, one of London’s leading estate agencies.

LiFE Ventures (http://lifeventures.tech/) acts as a micro fund, as a seed investor and incubator to early stage start-ups, concentrating mainly on the property sector.

"We have a very experienced and strong board, which is now completed with knowledge and insights into our two main user groups: serviced apartment operators and estate agents," said Marc Figueras, KeyNest co-founder.

"Our first round of investment allowed us to further develop our product in-line with customer demand. We now have the funds to rule out our service across all major cities in the UK and, also, start helping customers abroad with their key management and key exchanges,” adds Florian Hoven, KeyNest co-founder.

In addition to their key exchange stores, KeyNest is now offering its key tracking technology to all companies within the property market.

KeyNest launched in June 2016 with 10 partner locations in London and has quickly expanded to over 100 locations across the county.

Please visit http://lifeventures.tech/ for more information about LiFE Ventures.

You can find more details about KeyNest here: https://www.keynest.com/

In addition, LiFE are also interested in other early stage start-ups that tackle challenges in big data, AI, IOT and Blockchain.

About KeyNest

KeyNest - https://www.keynest.com - enables its clients to share keys remotely by storing them in a local store, and to track all keys online from any device. KeyNest believes Airbnb hosting should be easy, and that life is too short to spend it waiting at home to let someone in.

About LiFE Residential

Founded in 2000 by Jonathan Werth and Jason Dienaar, who together hold more than 40 years of London property experience LiFE Residential specializes in luxury newly built property. With more than 4,000 properties to offer across the capital, the company offers services in lettings, sales and property management.

One of the UK’s leading real estate agencies, LiFE Residential has 13 offices located across London, in addition to 3 international offices in Hong Kong, Singapore and Cape Town. We employ over 170 dedicated members of staff who speak over 32 languages.

Florian Hoven

Founder, KeyNest

Tel.: 0203 633 4599

Email: florian@keynest.com

Marc Figueras

Founder, KeyNest

Tel.: 0203 633 4599

Email: marc@keynest.com

Jonathan Werth

Director and Founder, LiFE Residential

Tel.: 0208 896 4470

Email: Jon.Werth@liferesidential.co.uk

Gal Israeli

Finance and Business Development Manager

Tel.: 020 3846 3274

Email: gal.israeli@liferesidential.co.uk


Attached Media


About KeyNest

Founded in 2015 by Marc Figueras and Florian Hoven and incubated by Life Ventures, KeyNest enables hosts to share keys remotely by storing them in a local store, and sharing an access code with guests. The service is currently available in over 120 stores across 15 UK cities, and has already welcomed over 20,000 tourists and business travellers. KeyNest also has a key management system that tracks keys in and out of business premises using RFID fobs, which is used by estate agents and property managers.