Boom Raises $15M Series A, Launches AI Leasing Agent for Rental Housing

Boom Raises $15M Series A, Launches AI Leasing Agent for Rental Housing

Austin-based proptech startup Boom has closed a $15 million Series A round to expand its rental-housing automation platform and launch BoomCRM, a new AI-powered leasing tool designed to handle tenant screening and property tours from first contact through application.

S3 Ventures led the financing, with participation from Mischief VC and follow-on investment from Starting Line VC, Gilgamesh Ventures, and Company Ventures, according to details first reported by citybiz.

Why it matters

Property managers in the fragmented single-family rental market have historically relied on tools built for multifamily housing or generic sales CRMs that bolt on screening as an afterthought. Boom's approach—starting with underwriting logic and building the leasing workflow around qualification criteria—reflects a broader shift toward AI agents that can make decisions, not just route inquiries. For an industry managing hundreds of thousands of scattered-site units, automating pre-qualification at scale could materially reduce vacancy cycles and labor costs.

Platform serves 500,000+ units

Boom now works with more than 400 property operators overseeing over 500,000 rental units. Its customer base includes AMH, Roots Management, Marketplace Homes, Saratoga Group, On Q Property Management, and RENU Property Management. The company reports it serves more than a quarter of the firms on Peter Lohmann's ranking of the largest third-party single-family managers and 100 of the top manufactured housing operators by homesite count.

BoomCRM automates inbound leasing

The new BoomCRM product answers inbound calls, screens prospective tenants, and schedules property tours while carrying pre-qualification data—including identity verification—directly into the application process. The goal is to eliminate redundant data entry and duplicate screening fees that renters often face when moving between inquiry and formal application.

Boom argues that most leasing CRMs fall into three categories: multifamily-focused systems, repurposed sales software, or showing platforms for scattered portfolios that rely on outdated chatbot logic. The company says BoomCRM was built from the ground up around underwriting workflows, using current agentic AI models and offering open API access for data portability.

The product took 16 months to develop in collaboration with existing customers, according to the company.

Early results from property managers

Ryan Smith, a principal at Endeavor Communities, said Boom's AI leasing agent handled nearly 200 calls in a recent month, with 20% occurring after business hours. He said the system returned more than 75 hours to his team.

Boom co-founder and CEO Rob Whiting said the industry is moving toward AI agents for call handling and tour scheduling, but emphasized that the harder technical problem is determining who qualifies for a lease. Whiting previously co-founded Haystack Health and launched Boom in 2020 alongside engineer Kirill Moizik. The company started in New York City and relocated to Austin as it expanded from consumer rent-tracking tools to a full property management software suite.

Boom's earlier products include BoomReport, which helps renters build credit by reporting rent payments to credit bureaus, and BoomScreen, an application and underwriting orchestration layer.

Details of the funding and product launch were first reported by citybiz.