PocketList is a technology company.
PocketList has raised $3.0M across 1 funding round.
PocketList has raised $3.0M in total across 1 funding round.
PocketList has raised $3.0M in total across 1 funding round.
PocketList's investors include 75 & Sunny, Andreessen Horowitz, Banana Capital, Craft Ventures, CRV, Jenny Fielding, Scott Hartley, Goldcrest Capital, Khosla Ventures, Lux Capital, Max Ventures, Rally Ventures.
PocketList was a proptech startup that built a renter-powered mobile app connecting renters to share insights on apartments and access units before public listings. It served renters seeking honest, early information on rentals and landlords needing faster tenant turnover, solving problems like opaque rental markets, high vacancy times, and lack of unvarnished user reviews through features like ratings for lighting/parking, Q&A from past tenants, and direct chats.[1][2][4] The platform launched publicly in Los Angeles in July 2020 after stealth mode, grew to 75,000 users with doubling monthly engagement, and raised nearly $3.8M from investors like Wonder Ventures, but shut down in May 2021 amid COVID-19's impact on rentals, eviction moratoriums, and dried-up funding.[1][2][3]
PocketList emerged in July 2019 from iterative prototyping by co-founders CEO Nick Dazé and Julian Vergel de Dios, who initially scrapped ideas monthly before landing on the renter-focused rental platform; early operations ran manually via Google Forms and email while Dazé balanced consulting at Clutter and family life.[1][2] Dazé brought experience from Faraday Future, Fullscreen (acquired by AT&T), and Bit Kitchen (acquired by Medium), later founding Heirloom.[3] The company, based in Marina del Rey, California, operated in stealth, raised $2.8M in seed funding by April 2020, and launched in LA with plans for San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Chicago, and New York—hitting peak traction pre-pandemic shutdown.[1][3][4]
PocketList rode the proptech wave of democratizing rentals via user-generated data and mobile marketplaces, timing into 2019-2020 urban migration and demand for transparent housing info amid rising costs. Market forces like high turnover costs for landlords ($billions annually) favored its efficiency play, influencing the ecosystem by pioneering renter-powered discovery—prefiguring post-pandemic shifts to off-market access seen in later platforms.[1][2][4] Its fall highlighted vulnerabilities: COVID-19's rental decline, stay-at-home orders, and moratoriums crushed momentum just as funding closed, underscoring proptech's sensitivity to macro real estate cycles.[1][2]
PocketList's shutdown in 2021 marked a cautionary tale for proptech timing, but its model—crowdsourced early access—endures in evolved forms amid ongoing rental transparency demands. Co-founder Nick Dazé's pivot to Heirloom signals blockchain's rising role in trust verification, potentially reshaping proptech with no-code safety tools.[3] As urban rentals rebound post-2025, similar platforms could thrive on AI-enhanced insights and hybrid models resilient to downturns, amplifying PocketList's legacy of renter empowerment from a fallen contender to ecosystem influencer.[1][3]
PocketList has raised $3.0M across 1 funding round. Most recently, it raised $3.0M Seed in July 2020.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 1, 2020 | $3.0M Seed | 75 & Sunny, Andreessen Horowitz, Banana Capital, Craft Ventures, CRV, Jenny Fielding, Scott Hartley, Goldcrest Capital, Khosla Ventures, Lux Capital, Max Ventures, Rally Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, RET Ventures, Sequoia Capital, SNR, Eytan Elbaz, James Beshara, Jared Simon, Jeffrey Wilke, Steven Kamali |