Opendoor alums, Justine Palefsky and Tasneem Amina, have recently raised $15 million to build Kindred – a home-swapping network designed to make traveling more affordable. The platform allows users to arrange 1-for-1 home swaps or host other members to earn nights that can be used to stay at a different member’s home. Guests pay a service fee and for the cost of cleaning the home that is being used, but Kindred does not profit from that. In return, every guest is also a host, so everyone has a mutual trust and accountability for one another.
Since launching their private beta last spring, Kindred has received 20,000 membership applications, and members have already spent over 5,000 nights at each other’s homes. Even more impressive, they have experienced a tenfold increase in monthly trip bookings.
The company recently introduced a pay-as-you-go business model with no annual commitment required and an optional Kindred Passport for those who travel frequently. The Kindred Passport costs $600 and includes unlimited trips and $0 service fees for a one-year period.
As a result of their success, Kindred has just closed a Series A with investment from New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Andreessen Horowitz, Caffeinated Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Outset Capital and individual investors such as former Khosla investor Evan Moore and Figma CEO Dylan Field.
The company plans to use the new capital to expand geographically beyond North America into Europe and other cities and to invest in product and technology, specifically an algorithm that will power AI-based recommendations for users.
Justine Palefsky serves as the company’s CEO and is focused on not only capturing a share of the existing travel market, but also growing the travel market as a whole. With Kindred, members have the opportunity to comfortably swap homes and make traveling more affordable.
NEA venture partner Vanessa Larco, who recently joined the company’s board, believes that the company has opened up a “massive untapped opportunity for a true sharing economy” and that the platform is unique in that it enables peer-to-peer sharing of primary homes rather than vacation rentals.
