NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Pronto Housing—the first and only off-the-shelf affordable housing compliance Software-as-a-Solution (SaaS) platform—announced the closing of its $2.5M seed funding round. The round was led by Wilshire Lane Partners, an LA-based venture capital firm focused on early-stage proptech startups, with Nine Four Ventures, Essence Development, led by former NFL player and Vice President at Related, Jamar Adams, Lemor Development Group, principals of Housing Trust Group, and notable early-stage technology investor and advisor Sara Shank. This capital will accelerate Pronto Housing’s mission of shaping the future of affordable housing through tech-enabled solutions.
“Affordable housing processes are notoriously cumbersome, manual, and paper-driven,” stated Christine Wendell, CEO and Co-Founder, Pronto Housing. “Whether it’s amid initial lease-up or annual compliance, renters and owners alike face slow and painful processes rife with uncertainty and risk. We’re laser-focused on ensuring a quick and easy process for both sides of the equation.”
Founded in 2020 by Wendell and KC Crosby, Pronto Housing ensures a higher-quality of living is accessible for the more than 11 million Americans who are facing housing instability, while helping property owners meet their financial goals. Automating compliance for U.S. affordable housing programs, Pronto Housing reduces the friction associated with manual data entry and increases transparency for today’s asset managers and renters.
“The housing crisis continues to be a significant challenge across the country despite nearly $50B in Federal rental assistance for publicly and privately owned housing annually. We are committed to being part of the effort to cure the nation’s long-standing plague of housing instability, offering software solutions needed to make leasing and managing affordable housing faster and more transparent,” shared Crosby, COO and Co-Founder, Pronto Housing.
For property owners, Pronto Housing’s tools expedite lease-up by over five times compared to the traditional compliance process. For current and prospective residents, Pronto’s platform makes applying to a new building and completing annual compliance a quick and painless process, with automated information and documentation gathering. Pronto’s platform features two interfaces: a step-by-step questionnaire for renters to provide information and documentation, and a dashboard for property managers and owners to track and manage deadlines, communications, and digital files across properties, programs, and regulatory agencies.
Pronto Housing currently hosts a diverse set of early customers across the country via their state-of-the-art platform, including Laramar in Chicago, and Lemor Development Group in New York. “Pronto Housing is moving the historically underserved market leaps and bounds, bringing in a new era of affordable housing,” said Stacy Valentine, Vice President, Innovation & Technology, Laramar. “The compliance process has only become more complex. With Pronto, we’re able to reduce cost and time associated with compliance operations, enabling us to focus on what matters, enhancing our resident relationships.”
“The response from the market has been robust, as demonstrated by investments from today’s leading operators,” said Adam Demuyakor, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Wilshire Lane Partners. “Christine and KC are dynamic female founders that the industry needs more of and we are looking forward to supporting them as they build out the next major SaaS platform.”
“Christine and her team have been a pleasure to work with, and the software has been extremely user friendly” said Matthew Rieger, CEO of Housing Trust Group, one of the largest affordable housing developers in the State of Florida, with an expanding footprint around the country including Texas, Arizona and Illinois. HTG has been an early supporter of Pronto, and tester of its platform.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Pronto’s team to bring a category-defining affordable housing compliance platform to market,” said Kurt Ramirez, General Partner, Nine Four Ventures. “After our first meeting with Christine and KC, it was clear that their experience, product, and vision puts them in a great position to address an underestimated and woefully expensive pain point in the multi-billion dollar affordable market.”
About Pronto Housing:
Pronto Housing is the first and only off-the-shelf affordable housing compliance Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform. Founded in 2020 by Christine Wendell and KC Crosby, Pronto Housing’s mission is to make affordable housing leasing and compliance faster via tech-enabled solutions, an expert compliance team and a customer centric approach. Pronto Housing’s investors include Wilshire Lane Partners, Nine Four Ventures, Essence Development, as well as Sarah Shank of PGIM Real Estate.
To learn more, visit www.prontohousing.com.
