Ant Financial, the e-payment and financial arm of Jack Ma's Alibaba Group, and the NY-based investment firm Tiger Global Management have come together to help Chinese housing startup Danke Apartment. Tech Crunch reported that the housing startup managed to raise $500 million as its valuation shot up to $2 billion.
The Danke Apartment (the name means 'eggshell' in Chinese) managed to close the Series C round with investor Tiger Global Management and Ant Financial helping. The Beijing-based company had come a long way from starting out to create affordable living spaces for young Chinese urbanites. It works under the same concept that WeWork's WeLive uses.
Danke only creates living spaces more economical by slicing up a family flat--designed for a family of three or four--into smaller, more affordable units so that workers can live in them. Danke, in the meantime, includes other services such as housekeeping and maintenance on the bill, making sure that people can live without hassle in their apartments.
Technode clarified Danke's target market. Its customer base is primarily young professionals which are looking for co-living in an urban setting. These professionals may be Chinese professionals working so far away from home, looking for dwellings so as not to deal with traffic and get to their work on time.
In the past, China's housing market has started to go on the rise. Large urban centers like Beijing and Shanghai have been attracting a lot of professionals due to the number of companies found in them. While the number of workers rises, local governments have struggled to keep up with providing adequate housing for them at low cost.
Danke's presence is a major help to these workers through its service. It aims to stabilize home rental prices 'through AI-driven pricing'. At the moment, Danke provides much-needed help to local governments by filling in the need for affordable housing, as well as the transparency in providing fair contracts.
As for the new funds it currently has a hold of, the company plans to undergo a massive upgrade to its data processing system. As more data is driven to its AI engine, the system becomes smarter. This is why Danke feels it's time to overhaul the engine--to keep its system efficiency as well as the transparency of transactions going.
The win for Danke is another boost for online transactions. Danke's chairman Derek Shen was quoted as saying that the company 'has proven that the rental housing business can be decentralized and done online.'
