Zuma takes in fresh capital to convert your next apartment tenant lead into a contract
Given its product market fit in real estate, Zuma now aims to implement its business model into other industries with sales teams, like healthcare, automotive, insurance, education and fashion.
Looking for a new apartment is either a leisurely thing to do or something that has to take place quite quickly. When you don’t reach anyone in the leasing office, you often move on to the next one on the list, even if it was one you would have considered.
Zuma wants to ensure that any reach out for information is answered in minutes versus days. Today, the company, which adds artificial intelligence to sales engagement, exited its beta phase with $6.7 million in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz.
The company was co-founded by CEO Shiv Gettu, a former real estate consultant, and president Kendrick Bradley, a former Boeing and SpaceX engineer who left his job in 2018 to work at a property management company. They both saw the pain points for real estate sales teams and together built a tech-driven Airbnb-like hospitality property company that grew to $2 million in revenue in nine months.
When the global pandemic hit, they had long-term lease commitments, but with business and leisure travel halted, they pivoted their company into a virtual leasing office using AI to automate the conversion process, which became Zuma, Gettu said in an interview.
He noted statistics that showed a majority of real estate leads tend to come in at night and on weekends, when leasing agents aren’t usually on property, and that response gap of waiting until the next business day can account for a decrease of 100 times after half an hour.
Zuma’s AI-powered agent, Kelsey, answers complex questions about a property as they come in, and via text message, to encourage any hot lead to become a booking customer, even outside of normal business hours. It also brings in a human-in-the-loop aspect, if the questions are outside the scope of Kelsey’s ability, to respond.
“We understood the value of leads and the importance of nurturing them,” Bradley told TechCrunch. “Text messages engage with prospects immediately. If you’re interested in an apartment, you might not hear back for 48 hours, but Zuma integrates with property management tools and when a lead inquires, Kelsey gives them information on the property and the policies with the idea of them then coming in to view the property and sign a lease.”
Since January, the company has grown revenue by 10 times and is working with customers like Bungalow.com, which see an average conversion rate increase of 2.1 times in 30 days and 35 times return on investment, while saving an average of 50% on sales staffing costs.
Joining Andreessen Horowitz in the investment were Y Combinator, Range Ventures, Liquid 2, Day One Ventures, Soma Capital and a group of individual investors, including Apartment List co-founder Chris Erikson, former Y Combinator COO Qasar Younis and Lambda School founder Austen Allred. The latest funding round gives Zuma a total of $7.2 million raised to date.
Gettu says the company has hit a good rhythm with its initial product, so the new capital will go into new features, hiring and expanding sales to capture the market. Zuma is also looking to implement its business model into other industries with sales teams, like healthcare, automotive, insurance, education and fashion.
“Zuma’s blend between human support and AI creates a magical conversation experience for prospective customers that drastically increases conversion,” Connie Chan, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, shared in a statement. “The Zuma team has proven their impact for property management teams, and the sky’s the limit as this platform grows to serve and help scale any industry that has leads that require nurturing.”
real estate pandemic
International
United Airlines adds new flights to faraway destinations
The airline said that it has been working hard to "find hidden gem destinations."
Since countries started opening up after the pandemic in 2021 and 2022, airlines have been seeing demand soar not just for major global cities and popular routes but also for farther-away destinations.
Numerous reports, including a recent TripAdvisor survey of trending destinations, showed that there has been a rise in U.S. traveler interest in Asian countries such as Japan, South Korea and Vietnam as well as growing tourism traction in off-the-beaten-path European countries such as Slovenia, Estonia and Montenegro.
Related: 'No more flying for you': Travel agency sounds alarm over risk of 'carbon passports'
As a result, airlines have been looking at their networks to include more faraway destinations as well as smaller cities that are growing increasingly popular with tourists and may not be served by their competitors.
United brings back more routes, says it is committed to 'finding hidden gems'
This week, United Airlines (UAL) announced that it will be launching a new route from Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) to Morocco's Marrakesh. While it is only the country's fourth-largest city, Marrakesh is a particularly popular place for tourists to seek out the sights and experiences that many associate with the country — colorful souks, gardens with ornate architecture and mosques from the Moorish period.
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"We have consistently been ahead of the curve in finding hidden gem destinations for our customers to explore and remain committed to providing the most unique slate of travel options for their adventures abroad," United's SVP of Global Network Planning Patrick Quayle, said in a press statement.
The new route will launch on Oct. 24 and take place three times a week on a Boeing 767-300ER (BA) plane that is equipped with 46 Polaris business class and 22 Premium Plus seats. The plane choice was a way to reach a luxury customer customer looking to start their holiday in Marrakesh in the plane.
Along with the new Morocco route, United is also launching a flight between Houston (IAH) and Colombia's Medellín on Oct. 27 as well as a route between Tokyo and Cebu in the Philippines on July 31 — the latter is known as a "fifth freedom" flight in which the airline flies to the larger hub from the mainland U.S. and then goes on to smaller Asian city popular with tourists after some travelers get off (and others get on) in Tokyo.
United's network expansion includes new 'fifth freedom' flight
In the fall of 2023, United became the first U.S. airline to fly to the Philippines with a new Manila-San Francisco flight. It has expanded its service to Asia from different U.S. cities earlier last year. Cebu has been on its radar amid growing tourist interest in the region known for marine parks, rainforests and Spanish-style architecture.
With the summer coming up, United also announced that it plans to run its current flights to Hong Kong, Seoul, and Portugal's Porto more frequently at different points of the week and reach four weekly flights between Los Angeles and Shanghai by August 29.
"This is your normal, exciting network planning team back in action," Quayle told travel website The Points Guy of the airline's plans for the new routes.
stocks pandemic south korea japan hong kong europeanInternational
Walmart launches clever answer to Target’s new membership program
The retail superstore is adding a new feature to its Walmart+ plan — and customers will be happy.
It's just been a few days since Target (TGT) launched its new Target Circle 360 paid membership plan.
The plan offers free and fast shipping on many products to customers, initially for $49 a year and then $99 after the initial promotional signup period. It promises to be a success, since many Target customers are loyal to the brand and will go out of their way to shop at one instead of at its two larger peers, Walmart and Amazon.
Related: Walmart makes a major price cut that will delight customers
And stop us if this sounds familiar: Target will rely on its more than 2,000 stores to act as fulfillment hubs.
This model is a proven winner; Walmart also uses its more than 4,600 stores as fulfillment and shipping locations to get orders to customers as soon as possible.
Sometimes, this means shipping goods from the nearest warehouse. But if a desired product is in-store and closer to a customer, it reduces miles on the road and delivery time. It's a kind of logistical magic that makes any efficiency lover's (or retail nerd's) heart go pitter patter.
Walmart rolls out answer to Target's new membership tier
Walmart has certainly had more time than Target to develop and work out the kinks in Walmart+. It first launched the paid membership in 2020 during the height of the pandemic, when many shoppers sheltered at home but still required many staples they might ordinarily pick up at a Walmart, like cleaning supplies, personal-care products, pantry goods and, of course, toilet paper.
It also undercut Amazon (AMZN) Prime, which costs customers $139 a year for free and fast shipping (plus several other benefits including access to its streaming service, Amazon Prime Video).
Walmart+ costs $98 a year, which also gets you free and speedy delivery, plus access to a Paramount+ streaming subscription, fuel savings, and more.
If that's not enough to tempt you, however, Walmart+ just added a new benefit to its membership program, ostensibly to compete directly with something Target now has: ultrafast delivery.
Target Circle 360 particularly attracts customers with free same-day delivery for select orders over $35 and as little as one-hour delivery on select items. Target executes this through its Shipt subsidiary.
We've seen this lightning-fast delivery speed only in snippets from Amazon, the king of delivery efficiency. Who better to take on Target, though, than Walmart, which is using a similar store-as-fulfillment-center model?
"Walmart is stepping up to save our customers even more time with our latest delivery offering: Express On-Demand Early Morning Delivery," Walmart said in a statement, just a day after Target Circle 360 launched. "Starting at 6 a.m., earlier than ever before, customers can enjoy the convenience of On-Demand delivery."
Walmart (WMT) clearly sees consumers' desire for near-instant delivery, which obviously saves time and trips to the store. Rather than waiting a day for your order to show up, it might be on your doorstep when you wake up.
Consumers also tend to spend more money when they shop online, and they remain stickier as paying annual members. So, to a growing number of retail giants, almost instant gratification like this seems like something worth striving for.
Related: Veteran fund manager picks favorite stocks for 2024
stocks pandemic mexicoUncategorized
Comments on February Employment Report
The headline jobs number in the February employment report was above expectations; however, December and January payrolls were revised down by 167,000 combined. The participation rate was unchanged, the employment population ratio decreased, and the …
Prime (25 to 54 Years Old) Participation
Since the overall participation rate is impacted by both cyclical (recession) and demographic (aging population, younger people staying in school) reasons, here is the employment-population ratio for the key working age group: 25 to 54 years old.
The 25 to 54 years old participation rate increased in February to 83.5% from 83.3% in January, and the 25 to 54 employment population ratio increased to 80.7% from 80.6% the previous month.
Average Hourly Wages
The graph shows the nominal year-over-year change in "Average Hourly Earnings" for all private employees from the Current Employment Statistics (CES).
Wage growth has trended down after peaking at 5.9% YoY in March 2022 and was at 4.3% YoY in February.
Part Time for Economic Reasons
From the BLS report:
"The number of people employed part time for economic reasons, at 4.4 million, changed little in February. These individuals, who would have preferred full-time employment, were working part time because their hours had been reduced or they were unable to find full-time jobs."The number of persons working part time for economic reasons decreased in February to 4.36 million from 4.42 million in February. This is slightly above pre-pandemic levels.
These workers are included in the alternate measure of labor underutilization (U-6) that increased to 7.3% from 7.2% in the previous month. This is down from the record high in April 2020 of 23.0% and up from the lowest level on record (seasonally adjusted) in December 2022 (6.5%). (This series started in 1994). This measure is above the 7.0% level in February 2020 (pre-pandemic).
Unemployed over 26 Weeks
This graph shows the number of workers unemployed for 27 weeks or more.
According to the BLS, there are 1.203 million workers who have been unemployed for more than 26 weeks and still want a job, down from 1.277 million the previous month.
This is close to pre-pandemic levels.
Job Streak
Headline Jobs, Top 10 Streaks | ||
---|---|---|
Year Ended | Streak, Months | |
1 | 2019 | 100 |
2 | 1990 | 48 |
3 | 2007 | 46 |
4 | 1979 | 45 |
5 | 20241 | 38 |
6 tie | 1943 | 33 |
6 tie | 1986 | 33 |
6 tie | 2000 | 33 |
9 | 1967 | 29 |
10 | 1995 | 25 |
1Currrent Streak |
Summary:
The headline monthly jobs number was above consensus expectations; however, December and January payrolls were revised down by 167,000 combined. The participation rate was unchanged, the employment population ratio decreased, and the unemployment rate was increased to 3.9%. Another solid report.
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