Keppel Land is lead investor in co-living startup Cove's US$4.6m Series A round

KEPPEL Land, the property arm of Keppel Corporation, has taken a minority stake in co-living platform Cove, as the lead investor in the startup's US$4.6 million Series A funding round.

The size of the stake was not disclosed in Keppel Land's statement on Tuesday. Keppel Land CEO Tan Swee Yiow said that co-living solutions can be "incorporated in our development projects, potentially augmenting their value, and be developed into scalable and sustainable recurring income streams".

He also noted that Cove has a complementary expansion strategy into markets in South-east Asia where Keppel Land is already present.

Headquartered in Singapore, Cove was founded in 2018 through startup generator Antler. It currently has about 300 bedrooms and studios in Singapore, and about 250 in its new market of Jakarta.

According to the statement, Cove expects to double its offering to around 1,000 rooms by the first half of 2021.

Last September, Cove announced that it had secured more than US$2 million in seed funding to expand in South-east Asia and build-out its technology.

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The round was led by investment firms from Asia and Europe - Indonesia's Venturra; Singapore's Investigate and Yuj Ventures, which is backed by The Xander Group; and Germany's Picus Capital. The lead investors were joined by Singapore venture capital funds Aetius Capital and Found Ventures, as well as various strategic angel investors.

Shares of Keppel Corporation closed unchanged at S$5.29 on Tuesday.