Moderne Ventures recently invested in the Series A round of Hello Alfred – a logistics focused company that combines smart tech and excellent service so property managers may offer multiple on-demand amenities to tenants in their Class A properties.
Hello Alfred for Multifamily Building Tenants
Just like Bruce Wayne’s trusted butler, an ‘Alfred’ is a dedicated home-life manager who proactively takes care of time consuming tasks such as grocery shopping, laundry/dry cleaning duties, packaging, and shipping. Tenants in an ‘Alfred Building’ typically receive this basic weekly services package, however, they may also coordinate with their Alfred for additional services such as deep in-home cleaning, gift shopping, washing your Batmobile, or whatever inconvenient tasks that need to be done (at market rate), all directly through the Hello Alfred app. They appreciate the efficiencies and experience that their Alfred delivers; helping to manage “life’s administrata” allows them to spend more time on the things they love. To date, Hello Alfred has made more than 700,000 home visits, saving tenants more than 380,000 hours of time.
Hello Alfred for Multifamily Building Property Managers
Hello Alfred’s tech enabled services have a clear impact on buildings and their property managers by:
- Increasing revenue
- Reducing lease-up time
- Lowering resident churn
- Reducing operational overhead
Hello Alfred and Moderne Ventures
Something that drew the MV team to Alfred is their ability to establish personal trust with tenants in an on-demand economy where the same provider is rarely used to deliver the same service. The result is that tenants trust their Alfred (a lot). Putting a face, name, and personality in a home, a place where a very limited number of people have access too is critical to the company’s success and the happiness of tenants, who see Alfred as a differentiator and factor in whether to renew a lease or live in an Alfred building.
We also see Alfred taking advantage of several macro trends that align with the company’s longer-term success by positioning for win-wins on several fronts:
- Multifamily construction deliveries will continue at a record pace into early 2018. Most expect supply to outstrip demand, which will place further emphasis on a building’s ability to differentiate itself. In order to compete for the growing number of consumers that value the superior amenities and the flexibility that renting brings.
- Increasing (or maintaining) rental rates with an amenity that doesn’t take up space has a positive impact on NOI.
- The ‘Amenity War’ is shifting tactically from traditional brick-and-mortar offerings, like the pool or a gym, to technology-based enablement.
- Digital natives (tenants) expect to engage with their buildings and living spaces in a customized and seamless manner
We’re excited to be a part of the Alfred story, helping to change the way people live with a service that gives them back something we all need more of: time.