Electronic services and customer applications are part of everyday life in many different sectors. Joensuu-based Kodia Oy plans to digitalise the real estate business and the rental market. Business Joensuu is boosting the company's growth as an investor through the StartUp Fund Joensuu with an investment of EUR 100,000.
The growth company Kodia had a stock issue in the spring of 2022. Business Joensuu’s StartUp Fund Joensuu took part in the funding round with an investment of EUR 100,000. In addition to StartUp Fund Joensuu, investors in Kodia include Master Yhtiöt Oy and the investment company Karvest, as well as present investors and founding partners. Through the stock issue, the company amassed a total of € 350,000 in funding. In addition to the recent round of funding, there are plans to apply for further financing from the loan market.
Kodia is boosting its growth as a pioneer in the digitalisation of housing rentals in the real estate business. With the help of Kodia’s software every stage of renting an apartment can be handled through electronic channels. Digital solutions make it easier, faster, and more efficient to deal with the different phases of the process both for those offering a residential property for rent, and those renting the property.
“With our service, a community or company in the field of residential rentals can use a single user interface to manage all critical areas of renting, from searching for an apartment to terminating a rental, including customer service and payment. Utilising technology increases the freedom of the end customer. “In practice, a customer is given personal access to all information that is currently handled by a customer service intermediary. This kind of information includes questions such as the situation of a person’s own rental payments, the updating of personal information, questions and notifications related to invoicing, and notifications”, says Kodia CEO Joonas Tahvanainen.
The growth funds from the fresh round of financing will be used for the promotion of sales, customer service, and product development. This also means jobs: Kodia’s account manager started working at his job on 30 May and the recruitment of a sales director is currently under way. Through recruitment, Kodia hopes to serve a larger number of customers and to increase its sales. The biggest groups of customers for the company include public players in rental housing, such as municipal rental housing companies and private companies involved in providing rental housing.
“There is a considerable potential for electronic services in the real estate business. It is wonderful that a company in North Karelia is challenging the old operating models in this way. Kodia’s strong pioneering position in mobile skills and knowledge compared with its competitors made the investment an easy decision. Finland currently has about a million units of rental housing, which makes for an interesting market”, says Kari Pulkkinen of Business Joensuu.
Kodia’s short-term goal is to strengthen its position as the vanguard software of the field, and in the longer term the goal is to hold a significant portion of the rental market.
“The changes in customer service and payment have taken place through digitalisation in numerous fields and we wish to offer the same opportunities for housing rentals. At present, direct competitors include old computer-based systems. Kodia, for its part, is a pioneer specifically in the cloud service and mobile world. One could generalise and say that our main competitors at present are old operating models, and we want to offer changes”, says Kodia CEO Tahvanainen
Further information:
Kari Pulkkinen
Fund Manager & Growth Coach, Business Joensuu,
kari.pulkkinen@businessjoensuu.fi, tel. +358 50 4068716
Joonas Tahvanainen
CEO
joonas.tahvanainen@kodia.fi, tel. +358 The 40 738 8438
Kodia
Kodia Oy, which was established in 2019, is an actor in the rental management system. The business of housing rentals still generally involves manual processes or undeveloped software solutions. Kodia’s mission is to innovate and implement more progressive solutions for the field through the means of digitalisation. Our vision is to serve as a vanguard in our field, in streamlining the user experience, in improving the productivity of the way our customers operate, and in simplifying the interaction between customers.
Start-up Fund Joensuu
Start-up Fund Joensuu helps companies in the start-up phase to grow to provide jobs and to internationalise. The Fund obtains its capital from the City of Joensuu and private investors. The fund is managed by Joensuun Startup Kehitys Oy, a subsidiary of Business Joensuu. The fund’s capital is € 2.5 million, and a typical investment is € 50,000–200,000. Together with Business Joensuu’s Business Accelerator and internationalisation services, the Fund supports the domestic and international growth of its target companies. The Fund is an avenue for companies’ second phase funding round. While the Fund is not subject to any field-specific restrictions, its main focus is on companies that specialise in digitalisation, the forest bioeconomy, and materials and innovative technology. Target companies must operate in Joensuu, want to be located in Joensuu or have a connection with the Joensuu region at the operative activity level.