Venn members in a co-working space in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
Venn
The Tel Aviv-based urban revitalization startup Venn announced this week that it has raised $40 million in series A funding. Its investors include Pitango Venture Capital, one of Israel’s most successful VC firms, Hamilton Lane, on behalf of the New York State Common Retirement Fund, and Bridges Israel, a social venture fund backed by The Portland Trust.
First launched in 2016 in Shapira, an undeveloped area of the Israeli city, Venn signs long-term management leases with local landlords. It invests in and renovates their properties, and then oversees the leasing of the spaces to residents or commercial tenants including restaurants, schools and nonprofits. Locals who don’t rent its spaces can also pay to use the Venn app for access to amenities including co-working and rehearsal spaces, workshops, and various services such as on-demand laundry and food deliveries.
In the last three years, the startup has spread to Berlin and New York, where it currently manages 250 bedrooms in Bushwick. After surveying the whole city, the company settled on the eastern half of the Brooklyn enclave to help with its lack of community engagement services, dining and other necessities, its CEO Or Bokobza said in an interview. “There is amazing engagement with the local landlords,” he said of Venn’s experience in Bushwick.
A Venn bedroom.
Venn
Compared to Tel Aviv, however, neighborhood development has a bit of a different story in New York, where the term “gentrification” often has a negative connotation and can signify the death of affordable housing along with local culture. But Bokobza said Venn’s platform pledges the opposite. In leasing spaces from landlords, it works initially with those who already live in a neighborhood, and allows them to build a community based on their own vision.
The idea is for neighborhoods to choose the types of businesses, office spaces and civic programs that they want. Their mantra is less “if we build it they will come,” and more, “if they build it, they will stay,” he explained.
Venn is also committed to job growth and resident retention, Bokobza said. Since its launch in Tel Aviv, Venn has supported 35 small businesses and 590 neighborhood events that have been attended by 11,350 people, according to a statement from the company. It also releases quarterly community impact reports where its held accountable to its promises, Bokobza noted.
“If you go to a neighborhood and tell them this is how they should live … that is a problem and that is something that is going to face a lot of resistance,” he said. “The story is not about us, it’s about the people building their own community.”
Whether they’re looking to stay or come, Venn has 1,000 people on its waiting list for bedrooms in Bushwick, Bokobza said. But before it can increase its availability there, the startup will first put its newly-raised $40 million in funds toward perfecting its tech platform. The team then plans to expand to millions of members in 100 cities by 2030.
“When it comes to cities that are becoming homes to more people every day, investment must be sustainable and forward-thinking – there is no room for small dreams,” said Chemi Peres, managing general partner and co-founder of Pitango, in a statement. “Venn encourages the sector to view real estate as a long-term ongoing process, and community engagement is the only way to sustainably transform developing neighborhoods.”