Adam Neumann Invests $30M in Residential Startup Alfred
By Chava Gourarie October 15, 2020 12:18 pm
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Ex-billionaire Adam Neumann, the ousted co-founder of WeWork (WE), has returned to real estate with a $30 million investment in residential management platform Alfred.
Neumann led a $42 million investment round for the company, which was founded in 2014 and provides concierge software for multifamily properties. Bloomberg first reported the new investment. Alfred last raised $40 million in a Series B round in 2018.
Neumann, removed from his position at WeWork after the company’s failed attempt to go public in 2019, had previously branched into residential real estate through the firm’s coliving arm, known as WeLive.
But Alfred, also known as Hello Alfred, is unlikely to face WeWork’s primary criticism: that it is a real estate company masquerading as a tech startup. Alfred’s primary offering is tenant management software, and it employs full-time staffers to provide concierge services such as dog walking, laundry pickup and dropoff, and package delivery.
Alfred has expanded by partnering with real estate owners like Hines, Related Companies and Brookfield Properties. In 2019, it struck a deal with Greystar, which is also an investor, adding 450,000 apartments to its portfolio of managed units.
The New York-based Alfred was co-founded by CEO Marcela Sapone and Jessica Beck. Sapone considers Alfred a hospitality company, and gives each new employee a copy of Danny Meyer’s Setting the Table, the “bible of hospitality,” she said in an interview with Convene.
In other WeWork news, the company is reclaiming its original name, and dropping the We Company moniker it adopted in 2019.
