The merger aims to provide LiveIn’s community living solutions and a better O2O experience for KT Management’s thousands of tenants
LiveIn, which provides “affordable” long-stay rental solutions in Malaysia and Thailand, has acquired KT Management, a student accommodation and long-term rental solutions provider in Malaysia’s northern region.
The details of the transaction haven’t been disclosed.
According to a press release, this merger aims to provide LiveIn’s flexible community living solutions and a better online-to-offline (O2O) experience for KT Management’s thousands of tenants. This means that after students graduate, they will be able to have access to any accommodation within LiveIn.
“Malaysia and Thailand are key markets for us. The market conditions in Southeast Asia are perfect for LiveIn with its young people population, massive numbers of young professionals moving to the cities and the huge property overhang. We are now aggressively pursuing acquisition opportunities there and around the region,” said Keek Wen Khai (Khai), Co-Founder and CEO of LiveIn.com.
“This (deal) means a lot to us as a company. By ensuring our tenants stay with us in different stages of their student and professional lives and in different cities, we ensure a level of continuity that is rare in the rental market. We learn so much from them. We earn a higher level of brand loyalty. And we enjoy a much higher life time value (LTV) from each and every one of tenants,” Khai added.
Formerly known as Hostel Hunting, LiveIn focuses on addressing the urgent issues of young people’s living needs in the central cities in Southeast Asia by transforming existing properties into affordable rental homes via its O2O-managed platform.
The company was started in 2015 as an online marketplace for property owners and potential tenants to match and pivoted to a long-stay rental solutions provider in 2018. Since launching, it has raised about US$4.5 million from Jungle Ventures, Wavemaker Partners, Aucfan Co, KK Fund, Incubate Fund, and Cradle Fund.
Also Read: ‘Introducing the concept of co-living was the biggest challenge for us’: LiveIn CEO Keek Wen Khai