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Not way back, I questioned whether or not startups might assist resolve the U.S. housing disaster. Now there’s a brand new identify on the town: Airbnb spinout Samara, which simply secured contemporary funding. As for Dig, it bought acquired not lengthy after I began digging into its class: knowledge safety posture administration. — Anna

The Airbnb playbook

With a scarcity of not less than 3.8 million dwellings, the U.S. housing disaster isn’t displaying many indicators of enchancment. Evaluating the scenario to what it was only one yr in the past, VC agency Gutter Capital famous that it even worsened in some respects — mainly, funding.

“[I]nvestor curiosity within the housing market, beforehand chilled, has frozen over,” managing associate James Gettinger wrote. “Whereas rising rates of interest had been no match for the undersupply of housing, they had been greater than sufficient to scare away enterprise capital buyers. We’ve been instructed by proptech funds that they solely put money into software program now. Regrettably, software program can’t construct properties.”

In distinction, Gutter Capital nonetheless stands by the thesis it phrased one yr in the past: “There’s a historic alternative at present to put money into companies that speed up the event of housing in the USA.”