Flexible apartment leasing start-up Blueground has raised $50 million in its latest round of funding, which was led by Westcap Investment Partners and Prime Ventures. The company will use some of the capital to enter new markets in the United States and Europe, including Seattle, London, and Paris. To date, the company has raised $78 million.

Founded in 2013, Blueground leases apartments from developers and landlords at market rate for one-to-four year terms. They transform the spaces into well-curated turnkey apartments, which is then offered to guests for stays of 30 days or longer. Initially, Blueground targeted business travelers, but they found their flexible leasing model appeals to a larger market.

With a motto “to simply show up and start living,” Blueground aims to make the rental process ultra-flexible and convenient. Techcrunch reports:

CEO and co-founder Alex Chatzieleftheriou structured the platform to make the rental process as seamless as possible for the needs of flexible renters like himself. Through a quick plug-and-play checkout flow — more similar to the booking process for a hotel or Airbnb — renters can lock down an apartment without having to deal with the painful, costly and time-consuming traditional rental process. Tenants are also able to switch to any other Blueground listing during their rental period if their preferences change or if they want to explore different locations during their stay.

Every Blueground listing also comes completely furnished by the company’s design team, so renters don’t have to deal with buying, transporting — and eventually selling — furniture. And each apartment comes outfitted with digital and connected infrastructure so that tenants can monitor their apartment and arrange maintenance, housekeeping and other services directly through Blueground’s mobile app. 

At present, Blueground has over 2,800 apartments in nine cities, including Athens, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Dubai, and Istanbul. The company is targeting over 50,000 apartments in 50 cities globally by 2023, according to Bisnow.

photo credit: blueground

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