By Business & Finance 
Pictured: Ed Burke, Founder, RooMigo
Each week in our Ones to Watch section, we highlight some of the top up and coming businesses in Ireland. This week we feature RooMigo, a platform creating communities to connect compatible housemates.
What is it?
RooMigo creates communities in the home by connecting compatible housemates so they can enjoy shared living with great people.
The platform went live in June 2018, and now has over 10,000 members in Dublin. We are growing by 100’s of members on a weekly basis. We have young professionals finding and renting out spare rooms and also teaming up with other compatible room seekers on RooMigo.
RooMigo is also one of the first platforms in Europe to specialize on creating like-minded communities in the home for the build-to-rent and co-living space. We are in discussions with major property managers and co-living operators to put their accommodation on RooMigo. They will have a dashboard from which they can easily communicate with all their tenants, rent out apartments and take bookings from tenants.
Who’s behind it?
A passionate team led by Ed Burke is behind the startup. Burke is a pioneer in the shared living space with a true passion for connecting people and property.
A qualified solicitor by training, he has lived internationally in shared accommodation for more than 10 years. Prior to launching RooMigo, Mr Burke built social media housemate communities across Europe which have close to 100,000 members. These communities give him a unique insight into the international demand for shared living and the need for a platform to match housemates and book homes.
Mr Burke is dedicated to making RooMigo the most trusted community focused platform for connecting like-minded housemates and the most seamless platform for connecting property managers and landlords with tenants.
How is it funded?
RooMigo is funded by Ed Burke, Enterprise Ireland and the NDRC. Over €100,000 has been raised in external funding. “Most recently we were awarded €50,000 by Enterprise Ireland’s Competitive Start Fund. We are close to launching a formal funding round to back our expansion plans,” says Mr Burke.
Future plans
“Having successfully launched the platform in 2018 and shown great traction we have exciting plans for the coming year as we seek to build upon what we have achieved and bring RooMigo to the next level,”” Mr Burke says, noting three major strands he will be focusing on:
Release Room Booking Feature
“Members moving to Dublin will be able to book rooms securely on RooMigo. The feature is similar to Airbnb’s booking feature except for stays of one month plus and it provides landlords with a compelling longer-term alternative to short-term rental sites.”
Landlord / Property Manager Tools
“Over the last year we focused on building our community in Dublin and perfecting our beta product. Over the coming year we will release tools for landlords including a dashboard from which they will be able to rent out properties and communicate with all their tenants from one place. Tenants will be able to rent entire apartments, watch virtual tours and secure their new home from anywhere in the world without having to be in Ireland to do physical tours.”
Berlin and international growth
“We recently soft-launched in Berlin so we are excited about our international growth plans. We already featured in a documentary produced by ARTE (a leading Franco-German TV station).
RooMigo plans to capitalize on the international trend towards co-living and the explosive growth in the build-to-rent industry by providing operators with a stream-lined solution for connecting with tenants.”
“We believe RooMigo is one of the most disruptive and exciting products to be launched in the online residential real estate space in years as it helps groups of housemates match with each other and book their homes securely online even before even moving to their new city,” he concludes.
