MeetElise, an artificial intelligence-powered leasing agent software program in use at over 250,000 multifamily communities, has finished a $6.5 million Series A financing round led by Navitas Capital, bringing the platform’s total funding to $8.5 million.

The MeetElise program uses machine learning to handle communications between apartment operators and prospective residents. It can be integrated seamlessly with existing property management software, and provides instant answers to prospective residents’ questions. This, according to the company, reduces the complexities involved in communications between potential renters and leasing offices, particularly as COVID-19 has necessitated vast changes to the touring and leasing process.

“We launched MeetElise with the desire to make housing more accessible—but instead of building houses, we decided to take the approach of building scalable software to help existing residential property managers run more efficiently and profitably,” says Minna Song, co-founder and CEO of MeetElise. “Elise is responsive 24/7 and always answers emails, calls, and texts immediately—saving our client leasing teams two to three hours a day (on average) to focus on other tasks serving prospective and current residents. We’re thrilled by the reception the technology has received and to have incredible partners like Navitas supporting us as we help property managers bring scalability to crucial pieces of the prospective resident journey.”

The MeetElise platform has been deployed portfoliowide by many of the largest multifamily management companies over the past year, including Equity Residential and AvalonBay, which both served as Series A investors. The Series A investment will be used to innovate the product and to deploy the product to small or midsize property management companies, as well as recruiting efforts.

Among MeetElise’s newest products is a self-guided touring platform, formed to address the issues managers face during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through this program, MeetElise can schedule and facilitate self-guided or virtual tours through an integration with igloohome and with digital twin visualizations from Matterport.

“MeetElise serves as a bright spot within proptech—an easy-to-deploy technology solution that replaces a manual process and produces immediate ROI,” says Karen Hollinger, senior vice president of strategic initiatives at AvalonBay. “Responsiveness to our prospects is key to AvalonBay’s mission, and we are pleased to partner with Minna and the MeetElise team to help reimagine the leasing experience.”