Second-home ownership startup offering "hotel-like" stays raises $30M

Interest in fractional home ownership platforms continues to be strong.

The latest startup to get funding is Fractal Homes, a United Kingdom-based company offering properties across capital cities in Europe. The company has raised $30 million in seed funding, with the equity portion led by White Star Capital, with additional debt investment from a London-based private credit fund. 

In the last 18 months, funding has gone to several similar fractional ownership companies, including Pacaso, Kokomo, Altacasa, Ember and, most recently, Seqoon in October.

Similar to the others, Fractal offers its owners what it calls “hotel-style management and maintenance.”

Owners use the Fractal app to schedule their stays and book services such as chauffeurs and child care. 

"Fractal fully manages the property and takes care of cleaning, maintenance and all operational aspects that come with the running of a home to give our buyers a hotel-like experience," says Labib Kaddoura, co-founder of Fractal.

Fractal currently has four luxury apartments in London available for purchase in one-eighth increments. The company says next year it will expand into Paris and Madrid and later to ski and beach destinations. 

The company says it is focused on buyers from countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

“Being from, and having lived in, the Middle East, we know first-hand how beneficial a second home is for individuals and families who spend a lot of time traveling between two countries for business, schooling, and leisure. The attractiveness of European capitals for GCC buyers, coupled with a good market entry point seeing the recent appreciation in USD, make it a very opportune time for buyers to consider the fractional ownership model,” says Wadih Abou Bechara, co-founder of Fractal.

And says Eric Martineau-Fortin, CEO and managing partner at White Star Capital, “We were immediately impressed by the caliber of the Fractal team, who has identified a key pain point in home ownership that can be solved through the combination of technology and an innovative approach. We're very excited to be with them on this journey to disrupt the property co-ownership model through their scalable solution. Furthermore, the Fractal team's ambition is strongly aligned with our views of growing connectivities between the GCC region and Europe.”