Keepers
Setting the Scene
The short-term rental (STR) industry is booming, yet its back-of-house operations remain painfully manual and fragmented.
Here’s why:
Cleaning: Turnover is chaotic—hosts juggle last-minute schedules, no-shows, and inconsistent quality, jeopardizing guest ratings.
Inventory: Restocking supplies like toilet paper or linens lacks automation, leading to forgotten items.
Maintenance: Small fixes go unnoticed until guests complain, because there’s no proactive or centralized system for upkeep.
This week’s company is building the first fully automated property management platform for short-term rentals.
In a Sentence
Keepers is a fully automated, AI-powered property management system for short-term rentals.
Fully automated: Keepers handles scheduling, restocking, and maintenance with minimal host input—managing services end-to-end.
AI-powered: The platform optimizes timing, anticipates property needs, and flags issues early—reducing manual oversight and guest complaints.
Bulleted Version:
- Just like Toast automated the back-of-house for restaurants, Keepers is automating the behind-the-scenes operations of short-term rentals.
The Basics
- Headquarters: Austin, TX
- Employee Count: ~6 FTE
- Investors:
49th State and various angels
- Funding amount: $1.2M
- Business model: SaaS fees, transaction-based revenue
- Early traction: $700K+ in gross revenue since launch less than two years ago, 400+% growth rate since Q4 24', waitlists in multiple new markets
Due Diligence
WHAT WE LIKE
Market Opportunity: The STR market is large and growing fast, but back-of-house infrastructure is still in its infancy.
Operational Leverage: Full-stack control of services allows for data-driven optimization, higher margins, and defensibility as Keeper scales.
Wedge & GTM: Starting with cleaning which is the highest pain point and then layering in adjacent workflows to increase LTV per property.
POTENTIAL RISKS
Service Complexity: Managing logistics-heavy services (cleaning, inventory, laundry) across geographies introduces operational drag and cost variability.
Market Education: Hosts are used to patchwork tools and may not immediately grasp the value of full automation.
Full-Stack Convergence: STR software platforms could expand into services, bundling operations to capture more value and compete directly.
Founder Profile
Carleena Andrepont, CEO: Previously SVP at MidSouth Bank and a decade of experience as a STR operator.
Comps
Cleanster: Backed by Sputnik ATX, ZEMU Venture Capital, Inclusive Ventures Lab
Turno: Backed by RET Ventures, Blue Startups
Why Keepers
By automating core STR operations—cleaning, inventory, and maintenance—through AI and service execution, Keepers has the potential to keep short-term rentals running smoothly and become the backbone of the industry's infrastructure.
