What the business is
Kindred is a San Francisco startup running a members-only network where people exchange homes and pay no money between members.
The bet
Travellers will trade stays in each other's real homes, where every guest is also a host, instead of paying hotel or vacation-rental prices.
Starting capital
$15M Series A (NEA, with a16z, Caffeinated Capital, Bessemer and Outset); $26.75M raised in total.
How it started
Opendoor alumni Justine Palefsky and Tasneem Amina founded Kindred in 2021 and began a private beta in spring 2022.
What happened
Kindred added a pay-as-you-go model with no annual commitment and a $600 Kindred Passport for unlimited trips with $0 service fees for a year. By the round it was active in 20+ North American markets with 20 employees, up from 10 a year earlier, and planned London, Berlin and Amsterdam plus an AI recommendation algorithm called Matchmaker.
What has to be true
Airbnb-style rentals had professionalised, leaving primary residences as untapped supply
Requiring every guest to host creates mutual trust and accountability, per the founders
A fee-capped, no-money-between-members model lowers cost for travellers
Density in major cities with high supply-demand overlap supports its local photography and cleaning operations
What can be applied
A give-and-get exchange makes every user a supplier, so inventory grows with demand, but it depends on trust and density in a few cities.
Aftermath
As of 19 April 2023 Kindred was active in 20+ North American markets, with 20 staff, and expanding to Europe. Revenue was not disclosed; figures come from the company.
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