withco closes on $32M to help SMBs become property owners

Withco’s mission is to purchase properties and then rent them back to small business owners with the option to purchase the property at a future date. It’s a fact that many small business owners can easily secure a lease but very few can secure a mortgage. And not only that, commercial real estate landlords, when given the choice, often choose tenants with large names such as Starbucks over lesser-known small businesses.

And today, withco is emerging from stealth with $32 million funding raised across seed ($4 million) and Series A ($28 million) rounds. Canaan, Founders Fund, Initialized and NFX are withco’s lead investors. Others that have backed the company include Danny Meyer’s Enlightened Hospitality Investments, LENX (Lennar’s venture arm), Ken Chenault, Thirty Five Ventures, Will Smith’s Dreamers VC, BoxGroup, Not Boring Capital and Quiet Capital.

A long impressive list of angel investors also put money in withco, including professional tennis player Venus Williams, former HUD Secretary Julián Castro, pro basketball star Kevin Durant, Affirm founder and CEO Max Levchin, Kenneth Chenault (former CEO and chairman of American Express), Carta founder and CEO Henry Ward, DoorDash founder and CEO Tony Xu, Faire founder Max Rhodes, Ramp co-founders Eric Glyman and Karim Atiyeh, Opendoor founder Eric Wu, Plaid co-founder Zach Perrett and others (whew!).

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