The $2.5 million seed funding round of Sugar

The proptech startup Sugar has raised $2.5 million in seed funding on the 26th of August.

A prominent team of crucial strategic stakeholders from the property tech, society, and innovative sectors led the fundraising round in Los Angeles. Scout Program of Lightspeed Ventures, Jason's Syndicate, Agya Ventures, Debut Capital, The Community Fund VC, Concrete Rose Capital, MetaProp, etc., are the supporters in the round. Other famous names who participated in this seed round are Sequoia Scout, Claire Cormier Thielke (Board representative of Zillow), Diran Otegbade, and Jonathan Wasserstrum (CEO of Squarefoot). 

Fatima Dicko, a Mali native, started Sugar at the beginning of 2020 in L.A. Dicko recognized an opportunity to enable individuals living in flats and housing areas to interact with each other as the COVID-19 virus started to quarantine them.

As a result, she teamed up with property investment firms and building management firms to create an application. The app is for apartment dwellers and other inhabitants who may feel lonely and separated from their neighbors.

As per Dicko, most household apps are clumsy, out-of-date, and difficult to use. She states that paying rent, dealing with the building manager, etc., are time-consuming and irritating tasks. Furthermore, residents who feel alienated and detached from their neighbors are more likely to leave, which leads to unfavorable internet evaluations and, eventually, lower revenue for property owners. 

Consequently, Dicko created an application that allows inhabitants to engage with one another and perform tasks. Such jobs include unlocking doors without keys, submitting service requests, and paying their bills. Since then, the system has expanded outside pandemic-related uses. Housing societies of various sizes, property investment companies, Airbnb accommodations, and certain other sorts of dwellings are among the startup's clientele today.

Sugar solution has two parts.
The first is a smartphone app for inhabitants, and the second is a web-based portal for complex owners and operators.

In an interview, Dicko reveals that Sugar had a "constant" MOM  increase before closing the seed phase, culminating in a six-figure ARR within 4 months after release. Sugar has started rolling out to apartments in initial consumers' holdings, like Equilibrium Real Estate, Apartment Management Consultants, etc. In total, the companies handle 655 buildings and 150,000 operational doors across 22 provinces. Sugar, too, has acquired 90-day pilots with big property management businesses like Bozzuto, which administers almost 78,000 units and is looking to increase resident involvement.

The company now employs nine full-time professionals, up from two the previous year. With its fresh funds, it intends to make crucial recruits in engineering and sales. Sugar will also use these new funds in its development and in extending its talent pool. 

Sugar's mission is to use technology and design concepts to provide residents with an outstanding stay by simplifying daily tasks and socialization much easier.

Agya Ventures' Mr Kunal Lunawat stated that Dicko's perseverance, ambition, and ability to acquire and appraise good individuals impressed his organization. He further says that Sugar's culture strongly emphasizes communities, which is why some of the global's top property managers are rushing to its platform.