Solving the Labor Shortage in Multifamily
Prior to the Great Resignation, the multifamily industry was relatively slow to adopt AI-driven property management solutions. While there was no doubt that automated technologies could benefit owners and operators, organizations were hesitant to begin utilizing technologies that might be seen as dilutive to overall resident experience.
However, in the wake of the pandemic, the multifamily industry began facing new challenges, including a labor shortage for many on-site teams. The unreliable hiring market reframed the conversation around automation in multifamily, highlighting its ability to not only assume some of the more tedious tasks associated with property management, but to create efficiencies that allow existing teams to perform their jobs more effectively. In this new environment, multifamily owners are using automation to pick up the slack for positions they simply cannot fill, enabling them to do more with less by streamlining property management workflows and increasing resident satisfaction.
Automation for Daily Operations
Although we have been monitoring the space for several years, we had never made an investment in an AI-based tool, but as automation has become a larger priority for multifamily owners and operators, we are excited to announce our Seed investment in Travtus.
Travtus’ flagship machine learning platform — “Adam” — is purpose built to automate operations in multifamily communities. Acting as a digital employee, Adam first reviews resident email correspondence and service requests to gather intelligence on the property; it then cross-references that information with renewal data and other key property metrics to gain a 360-degree understanding of the property and how residents are interacting with it. Once the analysis is done, Adam then begins working as a virtual customer service representative, using its knowledge of the specific property to respond to resident communications across email and chat to address concerns and resolve issues as they arise.
Adam also integrates with existing productivity tools, seamlessly automating task management, CRM, and communication workflows for property teams. All in all, it allows rental operators to simplify and scale their operations through automated, effective resident engagement.
For owners and operators facing a labor crunch, Adam has become an essential tool that lacks any clear competitor. While other AI-based technologies exist in the real estate space, they all focus primarily on automating the leasing function; Adam’s main applications improve a wide range of day-to-day property management processes from maintenance requests to dealing with WiFi issues and rent payments, setting it apart in terms of overall functionality.
Travtus’ Incredible Potential
Our investment in Travtus comes amid a market shift towards embracing automation not only as a solution to a recent labor shortage, but also as an intelligent analytics tool that helps existing on-site management teams better understand resident sentiment. As demand for automated management technology increases, Travtus has emerged as a premier solution that is effective at solving resident pain points and can be deployed at the enterprise scale.
Several of our strategic investors have already added Adam to their property teams, and their feedback has been extremely positive. With the size of the opportunity and product-market fit, we are confident that Travtus has the potential to become a leading solution across the multifamily industry in the years to come. We look forward to supporting CEO Tripty Arya as she expands the Travtus team, enhances machine learning capabilities, and provides enduring value for multifamily owners and operators across the country.