Medici Living Group’s U.S. Success Story
How this SMB from Germany in the Real Estate industry made it in the U.S.A
Country Of Origin Spain
U.S. HQ. Austin, Texas
Industry ICT
Year Founded January 2014
Number Of Employees Less than 15
Annual revenue Less than $1M
Medici Living Group
Medici Living Group was co-founded by Gunther Schmidt, Robert Gmeiner and Ferdinand von Fumetti in 2012. The Medici Living Group is a leading provider of co-living services worldwide. The company develops and operates digitalized and innovative residential and co-living space concepts for various target groups with different needs around the globe. Medici living group exists as two leading brands – Medici living for student co-living and QUARTERS for young professionals co-living. The overall portfolio of the Medici living group includes 1,800 rooms that are all occupied. Presently, Medici leases and furnishes all residential units on a long-term basis.
Expansion to the USA
In the recent past, Medici Living Group has been in collaboration with the Frankfurt-based Corestate Capital. This collaboration has seen the two companies buy and build as many as 35 co-living facilities in Europe. Medici living is currently dominating the European market with clients in Germany, England, and the Netherlands. Moreover, the company aims to expand to Austria, Switzerland, Spain, and Poland.
The main expansion plan beyond Europe will see the company set base in the US. Initially, the company aimed to focus on US cities with populations greater than half a million people. In the US, the Medici started with setting up two facilities in New York and one in Chicago. Based on the US expansion plan, Medici hoped to buy and build co-living buildings in Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Denver, and Austin. Most notably, the company is looking forward to building scale and be an early mover into the fast-growing sector.
Medic Living Group claims to have acknowledged how there is a huge housing affordability problem across the globe. As a result, the company aimed to solve the problem by giving building affordable real estate solutions. In the US expansion plan, the company was striving to implement its strategic plan to have as many as possible with roofs over their heads. Moreover, the company was focused on attracting more investors to obtain funds that would enable it to implement its US expansion plan.
Furthermore, the company intended to combine technology with affordable real estate to appeal to the young generation. The pricing for them as in the US expansion would be typically 10 to 20 percent cheaper than the price of a studio apartment. Schmidt, one of the co-founders and director, confirmed this. Also, Schmidt pointed out that the company was targeting to have over six thousand beds in the US. That would be more than the current number in Europe. He also noted that the US market would require more workforce. Consequently, the company hired Mark Smith from Pret A Manger in September to lead its expansion.
Currently, Medici has one co-living scheme in Berlin, Germany. The QUARTERS brand will operate the company’s new facilities. Even with the US expansion, the company aims to attract more clients in the European market. Additionally, the company seeks to boost its total investment in Europe between €20M and €60M.
As noted above, the company is in partnership with leading brands including Corestate. Currently, and in line with the collaboration with Medici, Corestate will handle investment, asset and fund management, project development and financing. On the other hand, Medici Living Group will be responsible for conceptual design and operation of the properties. With the US Expansion, Medici focused on growing its portfolio to more than seven thousand rooms.
Financing the US Expansion
In December 2018, Medici Living Group announced that they had raised $1.1B to become ‘The WeWork of Co-Living.’ That became the most significant investment in the nascent sector. The fund comprised equity and debt and was intended to for investments in major capital cities across Europe. With the funds, the company would build up its portfolio to about six thousand beds. The company would also channel quite a considerable amount of these funds to the US expansion plan.
In January 2019, Medici Living Group said they had closed a funding deal with the family office of German real estate investor Ralph Winter. Ralph Winter had agreed to invest $300 million over three years of funding the US expansion plans. These funds would be used to develop around 1,300 units for young professionals in the US. The units will be operated by QUARTERS and would make the brand one of the top US shared-living operators.
Sources
https://www.servicedapartmentnews.com/home/news/2018/12/12/medici-living-raises-eur1-billion-for-european-co-living-push/
https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/multifamily/medici-living-raises-11b-to-become-the-wework-of-co-living-95910
https://www.linkedin.com/company/medici-living-gmbh/about/
https://www.nreionline.com/multifamily/german-co-living-firm-expand-us-300-million-deal
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-property-mediciliving-investment/ralph-winter-office-to-invest-300-million-in-medici-u-s-shared-housing-idUSKCN1P9306