Life House Tech-Focused Hotel Brand Closes $30M Fundraise

Ashton Kutcher is among the many investors closing a $30 million deal to help Life House continue its disruption of hotels, Life House announced on Friday (Jan. 24).

The Series B funding was led by Thayer Ventures, with Tiger Global, JLL Spark, and Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary’s Sound Ventures. Additional funds also came from investors David Hamamoto, the former chairman of Morgans Hotel Group, and Jim Ketai, the owner of Detroit’s Shinola Hotel. Previous investors Global Founders Capital, Comcast Ventures and Trinity Ventures also gave money.

The software-driven platform Life House said the investment will support its growth into new markets and its drive for profitability by 2021.

The hotel startup was founded by Rami Zeidan in 2017, a lodging veteran of boutique accommodations seeking to impart luxury on local, lifestyle hotels. Life House differs from similar industry startups like Sonder and Lyric in that it doesn’t lease properties.

Among the fastest-growing hotel brands, Life House has over 800 beds and 25 hotels that are expected to be operational by early next year.

According to the company, its platform is producing revenue increases topping 40 percent while lowering expenses for operations 45 percent. Its website directly garners more than 65 percent of its bookings.

“The hotel industry is broken, leaving hotel owners with painfully unprofitable hotels and travelers with expensive or suboptimal hotel experiences,” said Rami Zeidan, founder and chief executive officer.

He added that software eliminates many issues but some “are solved with innovation in the supply chain of our services.”

Zeidan launched Life House to “fix the broken and complex hotel operational model” with technology and by creating “authentically-local lifestyle hotel brands that scale without brand dilution.”

Chris Hemmeter, a managing partner at investor Thayer Ventures, said they were “immediately enamored” with Life House.

“Our connections and LP-base in the hotel space are deeply rooted and after a thorough vetting, we became even more excited. We’re very excited to be partnering with Rami and his team and we’re pleased that they recognized our value-add and selected us to lead at the prudent terms we offered,” Hemmeter said.

In 2018, Life House’s Zeidan said that travelers longed for a sense of place, and he wanted his designs to reflect that need.