Uber’s founder wants to disrupt your apartment
Tech founder and provocateur Travis Kalanick made millions betting on key parts of the young adult lifestyle with Uber (transportation) and dining (ghost kitchen startup CloudKitchens). Can he hit a trifecta with a bet on tech-focused, community-driven apartments?
Kalanick has partnered with Oliver Ripley, founder of the luxury hospitality company Habitas, to launch Sekra, a bid to tackle the massive multifamily housing market with a firm that will focus on building and managing upscale rental apartments. It’s a market that’s sure to grow: Ripley estimates 80% of people younger than 40 globally rent, and that’s only going to increase as stubborn housing affordability impacts remain a key issue. In the U.S., the number of rental households has grown steadily, hitting more than 46 million last year, according to the Census Bureau, with strong growth in the percentage of Gen Z members renting.
The idea is to apply layers of technology and hospitality to create a more profitable brand of rental housing; while Sekra’s tool and tech stack are still under development, other apartment companies have saved money by automating repairs, streamlining operations, cutting energy bills, and making the touring and leasing experience faster, reducing vacancies.
“There’s a real opportunity to do something different in the multifamily space, to build a global brand that sits at the cross section of community, culture, and longevity and wellness,” Ripley says.
Ripley describes Sekra as taking both a hardware and software approach. The hardware portion includes building a proprietary tech platform for operations and iterating with residents (other tech in the market such as Elise.AI has seen significant growth in recent years). The in-development resident app will incorporate programming, content, and in-unit internet of things functionality—such as the ability to control appliances or lighting—that will “give residents an integrated experience that will command above-market rents.”
It also includes building a space that encourages socialization and better sleep, including consulting with sleep experts, installing noise insulation and blackout shades, and using circadian rhythm lighting.
The software part means hiring ambassadors for the properties and curating the community and its residents. Ripley says the onboarding for new residents will be done by the Sekra team, the residents themselves, and through the resident app.
The application of technology to a branded living experience may be harder than it looks. Evidence exists that tech can save apartment owners money: A survey by the National Apartment Association about AI usage found operators achieved 10% savings in payroll and a 15% increase in retention rates.
According to Joel Steinhaus, a former WeWork exec who cofounded a coworking firm called Daybase, there’s a big opportunity: The housing market is huge and there aren’t any dominant brands in the market. But there’s a reason for that. “It’s just hard to contemplate being relevant to someone in their personal space when they want to make it their own,” he says.
For context, a 2024 resident survey of 172,000 renters taken by industry group the National Multifamily Housing Council found that the most desired community features are fairly basic, including cell reception, a fitness center, covered parking, and a pool—all sought after by more than 70% of respondents. Features like maker spaces, party rooms, conference rooms, vegetable gardens, dog parks, and others were cited by 50% or fewer renters.
Sekra, which has quietly raised $12.5 million from a cadre of tech and real estate VCs and investors, including Fifth Wall, 8VC, Moinian Group, and Harvey Spevak, the chairman and managing partner of Equinox, seeks to open its locations later this year, zeroing in on sites in coastal U.S. cities as well as in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai. Sekra will both renovate and operate existing buildings and eventually build its own new, ground-up projects.
As Ripley says of the gigantic global rental market: “It just felt like an industry ripe for disruption, ripe to be messed with.”
Go With The Flow
A portmanteau of Sekhmet, the Egyptian goddess of healing and protection, with Ra, the Egyptian sun god, Sekra seeks to combat a few hurdles facing renters and the apartment market: the challenge of buying a home, the lack of socialization and authentic community during a global loneliness epidemic, and the blandness of much of the high-end housing stock. Early renderings show a hotel lobby-esque experience, with a muted color palette, textured materials, and plenty of curved lines.
It’s not the first tech-bro-helmed startup seeking to revolutionize the apartment market. WeWork founder Adam Neumann launched Flow, his own rental platform, in 2022, and has quietly built a company valued at $2.5 billion, which includes 1,000 rental units and nearly 500 condo units in South Florida, control of an under-construction 4-million-square-foot riverfront district in Miami, and holdings in Riyadh.
Ripley argues that his experience with Habitas in building a hospitality brand suited to young travelers makes him an ideal candidate to change the way apartments operate. Sekra’s seeking to create points of differentiation in areas that have long been puzzles for multifamily operators: creating authentic communities and applying tech to help streamline operations. Both goals have a profit motive. Better community means fewer move-outs and vacancies—key measures of rental housing profitability—and more efficient operations lead to lower operating costs. Ripley claims he’ll be able to double retention rates.
Steinhaus says that building community in real estate, as he has in his coworking firm, means being cognizant of the mistake of making too much effort. Creating community means being the host of the party, not the life of the party—too much forced fun and performative programming may make it impossible for organic community development to take root.
When asked to define programming for Sekra, Ripley mentions elements empowered by residents, and some familiar concepts: game nights, movie nights, lectures or talks, therapy nights or wellness programming, and book clubs.
Brendan Wallace, CEO and cofounder of Fifth Wall, an investor in Sekra, believes Ripley and his team, with their hospitality background, are the ones who can build a single tech ecosystem that addresses all of these challenges and do a better job managing and increasing profits.
“Many current owners lack an understanding of the elements of hospitality and community building,” Wallace says. “We see this when we talk to owners. They have big ideas, and even similar notions, but they end up being poorly executed and feel kludgey.”