Cocoonut, the Luxembourg coliving startup, announces a first round of €110,000 with Business Angels specialized in real estate. This round of financing is backed with €15M to develop its real estate portfolio. This capital will enable the young company to anchor its positioning in Luxembourg and accelerate its development abroad.
Photo: Nicolas Legay and Aurélien Dobbels, co-founders of Cocoonut / Credits © Kaori Anne Jolliffe / Silicon Luxembourg
With the second highest rate of immigration in Europe and a recurring annual housing deficit, the Luxembourg property market is becoming increasingly tense. This trend is expected to continue, as the country will hit close to one million inhabitants by 2050.
Like coworking a few years ago, coliving is developing exponentially worldwide and JLL estimates that at the end of 2019, 25,000 coliving units will be developed or are under development (source: JLL European Coliving Index 2019).
Coliving is a new facet of residential real estate, offering small private spaces complemented by generous common areas and a range of services comparable to hotels. It is a way of life that is gaining popularity and is particularly suited to people arriving in a new city or country since it is flexible, financially attractive and allows these newcomers to easily develop new relationships with people who are similar to them.
Created at the beginning of 2020, the young company Cocoonut has lost no time since it has just announced a first round of €110,000 dedicated to its technological and commercial development, to which these same Business Angels commit to invest around €15M for the transformation of its first three buildings.
“More than the financial aspect, this first round of financing allows us to gain credibility and take advantage of the entire network and knowledge of our partners. Getting the land is the real challenge in the Grand Duchy and we are delighted to have them on our side now”, says Aurélien Dobbels, one of the two co-founders of Cocoonut.
“Cocoonut offers an up-to-date offer that fits perfectly into the landscape of tomorrow’s residential real estate”.
Finalist in the Fit 4 Start competition, the startup has a strong local presence but its ambition is clearly European. Cocoonut is already working on projects in France and Belgium.
“Having managed to bring this team together allows us to accelerate. With skills in finance, real estate and technology, we were naturally approached and consulted to work on large-scale projects of more than 3,000m2, in Luxembourg and the Greater Region! Working on larger projects allows us to perfectly integrate coliving with urbanization issues”, says Nicolas Legay, the second co-founder.
Cocoonut positions itself as an element of response to the difficulties encountered by newcomers to Luxembourg. Its offer is flexible and compliant with local legislation and constraints. This theme is also of interest to the government since a new law governing collocation was published at the end of July by Henri Kox, Minister of Housing.
“The offer developed by Cocoonut meets a real need for Grand Duchy’s newcomers. We have daily requests from our customers wishing to invest in this new asset class of the real estate market”, says Jean-Nicolas Montrieux, partner in charge of residential at INOWAI.
“I was confronted with these housing issues myself when I started my career at KPMG Luxembourg ten years ago now. So I’m convinced that Cocoonut addresses a real problem”, continues Jérémy Charoy, investor and co-founder of Lalalab (exit).
“Cocoonut offers an up-to-date offer that fits perfectly into the landscape of tomorrow’s residential real estate. More than a PropTech, Cocoonut develops a real art of living”, concludes Laurent Rouach, investor and president of LuxPropTech.
