Skift Take
Can you be both a marketplace and a supplier at the same time? Airbnb certainly seems interested in testing that theory out.
Airbnb is leading a $160 million funding round for Lyric, a San Francisco-based company that manages multifamily apartment complexes and rents out those units on platforms that include Airbnb, HomeAway, and Booking.com, among others.
The Series B investment confirms an earlier report from December when The Information originally reported Airbnb was planning to lead a $75 million investment round in the accommodations brand.
The $160 million round on Wednesday is led by Airbnb, as well as new investors that include Tishman Speyer, RXR Realty, Obvious Ventures, SineWave, and former top Twitter executives Dick Costolo and Adam Bain. Current investors Barry Sternlicht, NEA, SignalFire, FifthWall, and Tusk Ventures have also participated in this latest round of funding, bringing the company's total funds raised to a grand total of $185 million.
What Lyric Is — And What It Represents
Lyric is one of a crop of newer professional accommodations operators whose competitors include companies like Sonder, Stay Alfred, and others. They’re essentially serviced apartment businesses that are licensed to run as a hotel (avoiding regulatory challenges), and they use marketplaces like Airbnb to advertise their accommodations Moreover they rely on technology to wring out efficiencies, manage the guest experience, and eventually grow to scale.
“We’re not a hotel. We’re not an Airbnb. We basically design and operate what we call ‘creative suites,’” explained Joe Fraiman, president and co-founder of Lyric. Those suites, he said, are “spacious studios, one-bedroom or two-bedroom suites on full floors of premium, either multifamily or mixed-use buildings, in 13 U.S. markets.” To date, Lyric has more than 500 rooms across 400 units nationwide.
Lyric‘s target audience, Fraiman said, is “the modern business traveler," often in their late 20s to early 40s and working in a variety of industries, who “is looking for travel that's much more experience rich.” He continued, “So, as opposed to a standard hotel room where you’re kind of just getting a bed and a TV, this traveler is looking for a lot more than that — it‘s being integrated into the community and having a higher quality experience.”
Lyric
