Milwaukee startup Rent College Pads Inc. has raised $500,000 in its first funding round, according to an SEC filing.
The company, founded in 2012, developed rentcollegepads.com, which allows college students to search for and compare off-campus housing options. Rent College Pads started in the 96square co-working space at 1101 N. Market St., and is in the process of moving into a 5,500-square-foot space in the same building to accommodate its growth.
Rent College Pads, which has 16 employees, has bootstrapped its growth for the past two years. The company declined to disclose its revenue in the filing about the funding round, which had seven investors.
“We waited and tried to do the organic growth thing and it worked out great, so now we decided to take on this relatively small amount of funding,” said founder Dominic Anzalone. “It’s just a great team and we have a great product and we have helped all our customers. We have a 97 percent customer retention rate.”
Rent College Pads is currently serving 18 campuses and is planning to add on several more. The company has helped more than 800,000 students find housing.
