Co-living startup Cove provides a home away from home

And makes renting as easy as booking a ride.

Much like its name suggests, co-living company Cove provides a safe place where people could "dock" and be safe, much like a home away from home.

In 2018, Cove was founded by three young professionals: Sophie Jokelson, Luca Bregoli, and Guillaume Castagne. They wanted to improve urban rentals and put tenants at the heart of the experience.

“Cove is a co-living company, making it easier, faster and more flexible to rent comfortable homes at honest prices,” said Jokelson, co-founder and chief marketing officer at Cove.

Jokelson added that compared with traditional rentals, Cove’s solution is seamless and hassle free.

“Moving house is often cited as one of the most stressful things you can do and in the traditional rental market this is certainly the case due to a very slow, long and manual process as well as a lack of trust and transparency between landlords and tenants. Ultimately Cove exists to provide a more tenant centric and digitised rental experience and we therefore reduce the timeline of searching, booking and moving from several weeks, to just a few days,” she added.

Cove markets predominantly towards young professionals and students. They provide ready-to-move-in fully furnished rooms and studios to rent on a monthly basis. They use an online platform for where future tenants can look through where they can take advantage of VR property tours and instant chatting.

But Cove does not just rent out rooms, the startup creates communities by connecting tenants, or whom they call "Coveys", across cities by hosting regular networking and events.

Cove manages the properties it is renting for landlords. It gets profits by taking a proportion of the rental income.

According to Jokelson, they see a huge potential for co-living in Southeast Asia.

“With rising house prices and changes in lifestyles, residential property ownership is becoming less viable and less desirable in urban centres and so the way is paved for significant growth in the rental market,” she added.

Plans are already underway to leverage on this because recently, the company received $6.102m (US$4.6m) in a Series A funding round. Cove plans to use the fund to double down in its existing markets in Singapore and Jakarta and expand further across Southeast Asia as well as invest in more tech for better tenant experience.

Cove's goals for now is to further cement its position as a leading co-living space provider in Southeast Asia.

“Cove's expertise in technology, design and building consumer companies means we can bring a superior rental experience and make booking a place to live almost as easy as booking a ride through Grab or Gojek,” Jokelson said.