The PropTech startup LifeX which makes co-living in shared apartments more accessible
Ritu Jain and her husband Sune Theodorsen needed a stable yet flexible living arrangement when moving to Copenhagen from San Francisco; they couldn’t find the perfect solution so… they created it themselves. LifeX is for young professionals looking for a co-living space in beautiful surroundings amongst amazing people. With a focus on bringing people together and creating inclusive communities, LifeX has taken the PropTech scene by storm and has four years into their journey already raised €15M.
“I’ve been a part of the startup technology industry for the last 10 years, so I am definitely used to the environment. I was Director of Product at the Danish founded company Tradeshift, in the headquarters in San Francisco, where I am from. They asked me to do a stay in Copenhagen, which I hadn’t given much thought to before that, but I was ready to take a risk and also given the current political climate in the US at the time, it made sense for me to try to live elsewhere. This is now almost six years ago.”
“Seeing the benefits and amazing social structure in place in Denmark was all worth it to me. On top of that, technology and innovation is at the forefront and really being pushed here, which is great to be a part of.”
LifeX was born out of a need of having an accomodation
“Before initiating LifeX, I’d had some great journeys and experiences behind me from various fast scaling technology companies, which equipped me with great tools for LifeX. It started with my (now) husband Sune and I, needed to find someplace to live for a longer period of time but still with more flexibility than what normal renting provides. Especially when we first got to Denmark, we went from one Airbnb to the next. We needed something more stable than that but more flexible than regular renting.”
“Because we were living in Airbnb's we weren’t able to register our address which made it difficult for me to get a bank account and thereby also my salary. This was how the first sparks of LifeX were ignited.”
“In addition to the practicalities of moving to a new city for a longer time, we also wanted to make it easier, than it had been for us, to find a network and make new friends. In LifeX we create beautiful fully-furnished co-living homes with great people. We take all the difficulty out of the process of moving to a new city and just bring amazing people together from different backgrounds and create more inclusive communities.”
“LifeX was born out of a need we had ourselves and we can see now four years in, that we are not the only ones with this need”.
It was obvious that LifeX needed to start in Denmark
“We have a strong passion for community and believe something beautiful happens when you bring people together the way we do. It became evident especially during the COVID-19 lockdown that people needed to have good communities at home to get through the hard and lonely lockdown months”.
“With our strong community and co-living focus, it was obvious that LifeX needed to start in Denmark. Co-living, the way we know it, actually started in Denmark in the 1960s and is now one of the very few countries where you see co-living happening at various levels, from young students to families and elderly living together. It’s a quite common part of the Danish culture to have these co-living communities in all ages and parts of the country.”
We have expanded so fast
“Our growth from the very beginning has been incredible. We have expanded so fast and more people continue to show interest. So we are definitely not the only ones who have this need that LifeX fulfils.”
“Currently, we have fundraised €15M (Founders and Cherry Ventures), we have 7565+ Co-living homes in 56 different cities around Europe, 350300+ happy LifeX members, and 30+ company partners. We have partnered up with several companies needing assistance with relocating employees to new cities, helping them to get settled in and surrounding them with amazing people.”
LifeX makes co-living in shared apartments more accesible
“The LifeX platform makes it easy for people to search for our vacant co-living spaces, get inspiration and help for an upcoming move, and apply for a space. On top of that, we also have a platform specifically for the members currently living in our apartments, which makes it possible and easy for them to communicate and plan with one another and is supporting our LifeX community even more, also from city to city that we are operating in.”
“For the most part we have young professionals, both couples and singles, in our community, but can see a potential in the future to accommodate families with kids and senior citizens as well. There is without question a lot of markets to expand into. Also geographically there is a huge potential. Right now we’re located in European cities but are looking towards Asia and North America. We have big ambitions and we will hopefully see the LifeX community expand to the rest of the world.”
Explore: Amos Bastian from LifeX.
