USA – Jupe, a San Francisco, CA-based housing technology startup, raised $9.5m in seed funding.
The round was led by Initialized Capital with participation from Y Combinator. The company intends to use the funds to hire a CTO and a wider team of software and hard tech engineers. Led by CEO Dr. Jeff Wilson and Co-founder and COO Antonio Gonzalez, Jupe is a housing technology startup that offers beautiful and dignified shelters which are instantly deployable onto any accessible piece of land. Each unit arrives complete with a luxury queen mattress, linens and bed, furniture, LED lighting, solar panels and backup batteries. Jupes assemble in over an hour and units are ready to rent the day they arrive.The company’s technology allows an entire village of units to be deployed and broken down on remote terrain in a single day. Jupes can redeploy and pop-up anywhere from music festivals to natural disaster areas for relief housing, and provide a fast alternative to any other kind of shelter and infrastructure for living.Since launching in December 2020, Jupe has made and shipped dozens of units to locations across California and Colorado.Through its short-stay-as-service (SSAAS) land partner program, landowners can activate their space via a software booking platform and install a village of Jupes. Jupe will deliver, install, book, maintain and clean the units, while the landowner receives a portion of every night’s rental. The forthcoming SSAAS software platform will also help landowners manage, market and book their inventory via other short-term rental platforms like Airbnb, Hipcamp and booking.com.08/12/2021
