New York, Sept. 20, 2022 — TULU, a smart tech platform that provides building tenants with on-demand access to hundreds of brand-name appliances, grocery staples, micro-mobility solutions, and entertainment devices, is rapidly expanding across real estate markets, while more and more global brands feature their products on the platform to get unique access to millennial and Gen Z consumers.
The new funds will fuel rapidly-growing partnerships with leading property owners and consumer brands, to enhance geographic expansion and data capabilities and unleash environmental and circular consumption initiatives across its global areas of operation.
Companies such as Bosch, Kärcher, Hoover, and Dremel are partnering with TULU to gain genuine customer insights, expand their physical and digital exposure with new consumers, and collect valuable data about their products and user behaviors, while leading landlords like Greystar Real Estate Partners, Brookfield Asset Management, Invesco, RXR Realty, Silverstein Properties, and CA Ventures integrate the TULU platform in their buildings to elevate the living experiences they offer.
Since launching in 2019, TULU has served more than 70,000 people across 19 cities in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Israel.
“In the last year, we’ve seen a tremendous demand for our service and have exponentially expanded our portfolio globally. TULU has become a standard for hundreds of communities worldwide and an industry benchmark, making it the leading global vehicle in powering the usage economy,” said Yishai Lehavi, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of TULU. “We are excited to see that, even in these days of change in the markets, there is still a high demand to support ambitious transformative ideas like the ones we execute in TULU. Beyond the impact of reshaping consumption habits on the demand side, we believe that the long-term impact will come from the supply side. Manufacturers and brands need to adjust to the usage economy, which incentivizes them to build long-lasting products instead of the shorter product lifetimes of today’s buying economy.”
TULU provides on-demand rentals of high-quality home products, household items and perishables to reduce the cost of living and waste in big cities. Using nothing more than a wall in a building’s lobby, tenant lounge, laundry room, or bike room, TULU’s IoT-based units provide 24/7 access to a variety of brand-name products including vacuums, VR headsets, e-scooters, bikes, and necessary household supplies. Units are customized to each building’s needs and core tenant base, where users rent or purchase products through the TULU app. TULU was recently listed by Retail Insider as a “Top Digital Retail Global Innovation” alongside products of companies such as Google, Meta, and Nike, and is quickly expanding to keep up with strong demand for its service.
Four months after closing its series A round, TULU is now announcing additional funding led by Regeneration.VC, a consumer-powered climate innovation fund backed by actor Leonardo DiCaprio, with the participation of Proptech VC Trifare, UMTB, and existing investors New Era Capital Partners, Bosch VC arm, Round Hill Ventures, Tal Ventures, AGP Partners, and Good Company. This additional funding will allow TULU to pursue new partnerships with landlords and brands, with a goal to reach hundreds of new buildings in existing and additional markets over the next year. Additionally, the company will execute its environmental strategy that considers property and product level emissions data, product life extension, sharing of consumer products, and much more.
“Nearly half of greenhouse gas emissions derive from producing and consuming consumer goods and much of our individual consumption occurs from the things we use within our homes – from manufacturing and packaging to shipping and returns,” said Yael Shemer, Chief Customer Officer and co-founder of TULU. “We aim to provide an infrastructure to create an alternative mode of consumption that will replace the owner mindset. We’re transforming our homes from individual buying units to a collective sharing unit.”
“Next-generation consumers are driving a transition towards circular consumption and shared usage economies with more than half of consumers indicating a willingness to rent rather than buy,” said Michael Smith, General Partner of Regeneration.VC. “With TULU, we see a massive opportunity to improve resource efficiency within buildings by increasing the utilization of products over their lifecycle and decreasing the quantity of goods needed to service a building. TULU has the potential to significantly reduce embodied emissions as well as materials, energy, and water consumption associated with product manufacturing.”