Roomi raises $11 million to find you a roommate

Looking for a roommate on Craigslist can be cumbersome. And it can be difficult to determine what the person will be like in real life. A startup called Roomi thinks it has a better solution for finding people to live with. Its app and website help you search for apartment listings with background-checked profiles from the tenants. It also pulls data from social media, like photos and employment information. New York-based Roomi says it has signed up a million people since it launched in 2015. Its average customer is a young professional, aged 26. Roomi is announcing that it’s raised $11 million to accelerate its business.The round is led by London-based Atami Capital, with participation from DCM, Great Oaks Venture Capital and others. Strategic investors including Scott and Cyan Banister are also participating. This brings the total funding raised to date to $17 million. Founder and CEO Ajay Yadav said the goal of Roomi is to “help young people find flexible affordable shared housing options.” He believes that Roomi stands out from the competition because it “focuses a lot on the trust factor.” Yadav said he came up with the idea to “moderate the marketplace” after he became frustrated searching for his own apartment. Roomi is in over 21 cities, but it says its top markets are New York, LA and San Francisco. Yadav said he hopes the investment from Atami Capital will help Roomi expand to London next. The funding will also be used to “double down on the product.”