Adam Neumann Has Returned To CRE To Invest In A Multifamily Services Startup

Adam Neumann is back in the game, dropping a $30M investment in a startup that offers services to residential buildings.

The family investment office of WeWork's co-founder and ex-CEO is leading a $42M funding round for Hello Alfred, Bloomberg reports, citing an announcement from Alfred and a representative for Neumann.

Marcela Sapone, Alfred’s co-founder and CEO, told Bloomberg she met Neumann this year and found she and he share “the perspective that real estate can do more for people, that we should demand more from our greatest expense.”

Hello Alfred, which Sapone founded with Jess Beck in 2014, operates in more than 100,000 apartments and now has $100M in total funding. The firm provides multifamily buildings with the staff and the software to manage maintenance requests and paperwork. For example, it takes on tasks that residents request through an app — such as grocery shopping or tidying up. It counts Related Cos. and Greystar, which participated in the funding round with Neumann, among its customers.

Last year, Sapone told Bisnow she and Beck hope to "be paving the way for a new kind of conscious company-building; one that serves the public and looks not only at itself but at the entire ecosystem. We think about this mission as a movement: to help save local business, create better jobs and lower waste."

Neumann has been laying relatively low for the past year, following his ousting from WeWork amid the furor surrounding its attempt to go public and his management. Last September, Neumann was forced out of his post atop the company he founded in 2010 with Miguel McKelvey, and plans for the IPO were ultimately dropped. Former GGP CEO Sandeep Mathrani is now leading the coworking giant as it battles to survive through the coronavirus pandemic.

Neumann walked away with a buyout package worth more than $1B, and with his investment into Alfred, he is starting to show how he plans to spend it.