# Kasa Living Financial Model

Tech-enabled hospitality operator that manages furnished apartments and hotel units on behalf of property owners, capturing a share of room revenue without owning real estate.

- Canonical: https://finamodel.com/startups/kasa-living
- Excel download: https://finamodel.com/startup-models/kasa-living.xlsx
- Category: PropTech
- Model type: 3-Statement
- Funding round: Series B
- Funding: $30M
- Founded: 2020
- Geography: USA, 35 cities as of September 2020. [DECK slide 8]
- Customer: B2B

## About the company

Kasa Living is a technology-enabled hospitality operator that manages furnished apartments and hotel units for property owners. It captures a share of room revenue without owning the real estate, following a post-COVID pivot from leasing to nearly fully fee-managed operations.

The company had reached 35 US cities by September 2020 and closed a Series B in August of that year. Its core KPI tree is units under management, occupancy, room nights sold, ADR, gross booking value, and management-fee revenue.

The model forecasts units managed, occupancy, ADR, room nights, and fee rate by market. Ancillary revenue, property costs, owner retention, market launches, sales, and operating overhead translate asset-light hospitality growth into an EBITDA and cash-runway forecast.

## What's included

- 5-year monthly revenue build with stage-appropriate growth assumptions
- Full P&L, headcount plan, and operating-expense schedule
- Cash-flow statement, runway, and burn-rate tracking
- Valuation via exit multiple with a DCF cross-check
- Returns analysis with MOIC and IRR
- Unit economics including CAC, LTV, payback, and cohort retention

## Product & value proposition

- Fully-furnished apartments and hotel units operated as upscale, hotel-inspired short-to-medium-term rentals.
- Guests: seamless contactless check-in/out (sub-5-min arrival web app), 24/7 support, >95% 4–5 star reviews across hundreds of thousands of room nights.
- Property partners: Kasa manages all guest operations end-to-end (FF&E, housekeeping, regulatory/tax, trust & safety, revenue management, 24/7 guest comms). Partners see +20–50% increase in NOI.
- Flexible scale: can manage a few units in a building up to a full building, or national multi-building portfolios.
- Post-COVID expansion: technology stack extended to manage traditional hotel assets (<75-unit hospitality assets - 425K keys nationally; independent hotels - 1.5M keys nationally).

## Market

- Supply-side opportunity cited (not a formal TAM/SAM/SOM):
  - New multifamily developments: ~300K units built per year.
  - Small hospitality assets (<75 units): 425K keys nationally.
  - Independent hotels: 1.5M keys nationally.
- No dollar-value TAM/SAM/SOM presented in deck.

## Revenue model

- Revenue structure: service agreement or percentage-of-revenue agreement with property partners. Exact fee rate / take-rate not disclosed.
- Nearly 100% fee-managed post-COVID (transformed from prior model that included lease/master-lease risk).
- Distribution channels: Kasa's own website/app (kasa.com), plus OTA channel management (implied by "channel & online advertising management").
- Revenue levers: occupancy, ADR (average daily rate), ancillary fees (parking, pets, incidentals).
- No revenue figures, ADR, or fee percentages disclosed in deck.

## Traction & metrics

- Units under management: grew +50% from December 2019 to September 2020 (bar chart shows ~3 bars with clear step-up; absolute unit count not labeled).
- Industry context during COVID: Kasa +50% units while hotel industry contracted -45%.
- Occupancy: Kasa maintained ~70–75% monthly occupancy through COVID peak (April 2020), while US hotel all-capacity fell to ~20% and adjusted-capacity to ~25%. By June–July 2020 Kasa recovered to ~75%+ vs US hotels at ~35–45%.
- RevPAR: >2x outperformance vs hotels during COVID.
- Guest satisfaction: >95% 4- and 5-star ratings across hundreds of thousands of room nights.
- Customer mix: Families (39% + 13% + 24% = 76%), Business traveler 15%, Group 8%.
- Geographic footprint: 35 cities as of deck date (September 2020).

## Unit economics

- Property partner NOI uplift: +20–50%.

## Competition / moat

- Positioned against: (a) traditional hotels - cramped (~325 sq ft), expensive fixed-cost structure, hard to adapt; (b) Airbnb/traditional STR hosts - unreliable cleanliness, no guest/host vetting, community disruption.
- Moat claimed:
  - Proprietary technology: guest screening, contactless arrival, noise/smoke sensors, revenue management.
  - Enterprise multifamily relationships that enable rapid scaling.
  - Geographic diversity across drive-to markets that stabilized results during COVID.
  - Capital efficiency / asset-light model reduces balance-sheet risk.
- Named competitors: not directly named in deck; implied are Airbnb/VRBO and hotel chains.

## Team & funding ask / use of funds

- Founder & CEO: Roman Pedan. Leadership team of 12 named.
- Advisors / investors (all personal investors): Marcus Ridgeway (co-founder Invitation Homes), Rob Kline (Chartres Lodging, $12B+ hotel transactions), Chris Mahowald (Stanford GSB, Lone Star Funds, Colony Capital, $100B+ RE AUM), Aaron Schildkrout (Uber growth), Craig Weissman (CTO Salesforce/Okta), Fred Tuomi (ex-CEO Invitation Homes).
- Funding history:
  - Seed: $6.3M, December 2018 (Zigg Capital, BoxGroup, Founder Collective)
  - Series A: ~$21M, December 2019 (FirstMark Capital, RET Ventures, Zigg pro-rata) - EV +300% from Seed
  - Series B: $30M, August 2020 (Ribbit Capital, FirstMark, Zigg, RET, BoxGroup pro-rata) - EV +100% from Series A
  - Total raised: ~$57.3M
- Use of Series B funds: Not explicitly stated; implied - expand units under management into hospitality assets and independent hotels.

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## Recommended financial model

- **Archetype + why:** Hospitality management company P&L (fee-based, asset-light). Primary KPI tree flows: Units Under Management → Occupancy → Room Nights Sold → ADR → Gross Booking Value → Management Fee Revenue (% of GBV or flat per-unit). Secondary revenue: ancillary fees. No balance sheet inventory/capex risk since Kasa does not own/lease units (post-pivot). A 3-statement shell is useful to show the path to EBITDA profitability, but the core driver model is a RevPAR × units × fee-rate engine.

- **Forecast horizon & granularity:** Monthly for Year 1–2 (operational detail); annual for Years 3–5. Cover Q3 2020 actuals as base period aligning to deck date (September 2020).

- **Key drivers & assumptions:**

| Driver | Value | Source |
| -- | -- | -- |
| Units under management at base (Sep-2020) | ~ | relative; absolute count not in deck |
| UUM growth rate - Year 1 | 50–100% YoY | extrapolating Sept-2020 YTD +50% run-rate momentum into multifamily + hospitality pipeline |
| UUM growth rate - Years 2–5 | 30–60% YoY | growth deceleration as base grows; tapering to mature |
| Occupancy - base (post-COVID recovery) | ~75% | Kasa July 2020 ~75%+ |
| Occupancy - stabilized target | 80–85% | consistent with premium STR operators |
| ADR | - | no figure given - ~$120–$180/night blended for furnished apt / boutique hotel; needs external benchmark |
| Management fee take-rate (% of room revenue) | ~20–30% | typical for professional hospitality mgmt companies; exact rate not in deck |
| RevPAR (Occ × ADR) | Derived | - |
| Average length of stay | ~5–7 nights | medium-term bias (families + business traveler mix; avg group >2 guests) |
| Revenue per unit per month | Derived | - |
| Gross margin on fee revenue | ~50–65% | asset-light; main costs are housekeeping mgmt, guest ops, tech, account managers |
| S&M as % of revenue | ~15–20% | early-stage, heavy channel spend |
| G&A as % of revenue | ~20–25% | corporate overhead, compliance, finance |
| R&D / Tech as % of revenue | ~10–15% | proprietary tech platform is core to moat |
| EBITDA margin target (Year 5) | ~15–25% | mature hospitality mgmt comps (e.g. Vacasa, Sonder benchmarks) |

- **Scenarios (Base / Bull / Bear - which variables flex):**
  - **Base:** UUM +60% Y1, occupancy 78%, ADR at midpoint benchmark, fee take-rate 25%
  - **Bull:** UUM +100% Y1 (rapid hotel expansion), occupancy 83%, ADR premium mix shift upward, fee take-rate 28%
  - **Bear:** UUM +30% Y1 (delayed hotel pipeline, macro headwinds), occupancy 70%, ADR compression, fee take-rate 22%; tests cash runway against $57M raised

- **Required sheets / outputs:**
  1. `Assumptions` - all toggleable drivers, scenario selector
  2. `Units` - UUM build-up by segment (multifamily parcels, partial buildings, full buildings, boutique hospitality, independent hotels); monthly additions
  3. `RevPAR Model` - occupancy × ADR → room nights sold → GBV per segment
  4. `Revenue` - management fee revenue + ancillary; total net revenue
  5. `P&L` - gross profit, S&M, R&D, G&A, EBITDA, D&A, EBIT, interest, net income
  6. `Cash Flow` - operating CF, minimal capex (asset-light), ending cash, runway vs. $30M Series B
  7. `Balance Sheet` - simplified; focus on cash, deferred revenue, payables
  8. `KPI Dashboard` - UUM, occupancy, ADR, RevPAR, GBV, fee revenue, EBITDA margin, months runway
  9. `Scenarios` - Base / Bull / Bear toggle or side-by-side

## Frequently asked questions

### Is the Kasa Living financial model free?

Yes. The Kasa Living model is a free Excel download with live formulas.

### Can I change the assumptions?

Yes. The workbook is editable and its live formulas recalculate when assumptions change.