4 months after coming into the UK market, controversial short-term subletting startup Kiki is following a well-recognized sample because it finds its footing in London.
Guide processes powered by Instagram, restricted income, events, and rising prices (together with visa sponsorship for newly employed employees) are already defining Kiki’s native operations. In the meantime, the startup is publicly projecting confidence whereas privately acknowledging person confusion and slower winter development.
Kiki entered the London market in July 2025, shortly after exiting New York. Its US operations had turn out to be more and more untenable as a consequence of regulatory considerations. This week, these considerations had been formalised.
New York Metropolis’s Workplace of Particular Enforcement (OSE) confirmed that Kiki had paid a US$152,300 advantageous for failing to adjust to Native Legislation 18, which governs short-term rental platforms within the metropolis. The legislation requires hosts to register and platforms to confirm listings, submit experiences, and take away noncompliant properties.
This legislation was not unknown to the startup earlier than transferring to the US.
In Kiki’s 2023 investor pitch to Blackbird, the startup had flagged potential pushback. When Blackbird requested what Kiki would do if it obtained a stop and desist, the startup mentioned this may be a “pioneering moment” and that it could “ignore the government” or “build a lobbying team”.
Now in London, Kiki seems to be extra cautious. Particulars relating to its listings are not publicly browsable. All listings are gated behind an invite-only system requiring a verified Instagram deal with and a referral from an present member. The web site declares a “no weirdo policy” and explicitly discourages new customers from making an attempt to hitch with out vetting.
Pictures: Instagram
“We do everything on Instagram,” the web site reads. The primary @kikiclub_london account can be non-public — a transfer that echoes its New York account and got here after a number of experiences from this publication on the startup’s NYC actions, monetary mannequin, and employees exits – together with its co-founders.
Since launching within the UK, Kiki has leaned into acquainted occasions and social rituals: a launch celebration adopted by a ‘100 matches’ secret celebration in October, and ongoing “coffee catch-ups” with would-be customers.
“Just made this colleague [sic] of our first 40 coffees meeting you all over the last week,” a July 10 Instagram submit acknowledged.
The startup additionally lately ran a member giveaway for a visit to Spain and supplied free skilled home cleansing for customers for the month of September.
Income lags the hype, once more
Regardless of the exercise, the enterprise facet has been sluggish. In accordance with an October investor replace, Kiki was celebrating London customers rising to 170 matches between July and October, in addition to 201 listings added.
Nonetheless, on the finish of October, the enterprise income generated in its first three-and-a-half months in London was simply $18,700. It additionally acknowledged that $187,000 GMV had been earned by hosts, suggesting Kiki takes roughly a ten% minimize of all short-term sublets.
Nonetheless, founder Toby Thomas-Smith acknowledged in the identical non-cap investor replace that Kiki was one way or the other “officially halfway to profitability”.
“We’re not trying to be profitable or cut costs right now, but it was awesome to see. Once our engineer and next generalist join the payroll this will obviously shift a bit,” Thomas-Smith mentioned.
It’s unclear how that is being quantified. Nonetheless, it’s value noting that Thomas-Smith, in an earlier report masking February and March, mentioned: “I have a separate update I send to our actual investors, and this is a top-level version of that”.
Regardless, the corporate is already combating London seasonality.
“The winter is already hitting us like a ton of bricks just as we knew it would for November, December, and January,” Thomas-Smith wrote within the October 2025 replace.
“On average we see about 8 to 10 times more growth in summer than in winter. For example, we are not expecting to get over 25 matches per week during winter but know we can reach 180 to 200 matches per week at the peak of summer next year.”
These monetary blended messages echo Kiki’s sample in New York. An investor report from earlier this 12 months revealed that Kiki had generated simply US$76,000 in income since ‘relaunching’ the subletting enterprise in New York 10 months prior.
Kiki’s investor experiences all through 2024 additionally introduced inconsistent monetary figures, notably relating to income, burn charge, and the corporate’s use of “rent saved” as a efficiency metric.
In the meantime, an investor report from November 2024 confirmed that Kiki had US$3,823,219 within the financial institution simply 18 months after elevating US$6 million forward of its transfer to New York.
A ‘hackathon’ hiring course of
In October, Kiki introduced it had employed its first full-time engineer — providing UK visa sponsorship for the position — and flagged plans for a second rent in a generalist operations place, additionally providing sponsorship.
Each hires thus far are from New Zealand.
Investor notes revealed that the engineer’s six-week hiring course of included a “3 day hackathon where we called for 10 hours straight each day to simulate building together,” Thomas-Smith mentioned.
“Tems and I even did overnight shifts from 7 pm to 7 am to match NZ time.”
The end result was a digital guestbook characteristic, “so listings can finally have reviews”.
“For anyone hiring an engineer remotely I can’t recommend this approach enough,” he added.
Picture: Instagram. Consumer particulars blurred by SmartCompany.
As of October, Kiki was providing complete compensation packages of £160,000–£170,000 for the engineer position and £120,000 for the still-open generalist position.
Each embody vital fairness parts and a base wage of £60,000–£70,000 for the engineer and £40,000 for the generalist.
Extra perks included visa sponsorship, relocation assist, two free meals on weekdays, fitness center memberships, and momentary lodging inside a Kiki-listed property.
In each instances, the corporate emphasised the potential worth of early-stage fairness, referencing the multimillion-pound windfalls of early Airbnb and Uber hires.
Lack of transparency
In distinction to its early NYC rollout, the place listings had been publicly displayed with names, pictures, and house particulars, Kiki’s London mannequin is much extra opaque. Listings are solely viewable to these granted entry to a non-public Instagram loop.
The corporate’s inner figures present 85% of its London customers are ladies, and 70% of listings are for single rooms in shared houses. It’s unclear how or if formal safety or security checks are carried out for the individuals in these shared houses, together with different flatmates.
Whereas espresso meet-ups, group chats, and a “no weirdos policy” for these itemizing a room are referenced in public comms, no formal screening framework from its three-person staff has been disclosed, elevating questions concerning the robustness of the onboarding course of.
Picture: Instagram
Kiki’s personal investor updates have additionally flagged considerations about person confusion and platform readability.
Within the August replace, the staff admitted “5+ people a day ask ‘how does it work’,” and that even individuals who know the founders are nonetheless not utilizing the product.
The secretive, still-largely guide mannequin is pitched as exclusivity, however the heavy reliance on social media and word-of-mouth — with a restricted viewable product — provides to the murkiness round how the enterprise capabilities day-to-day, what accountability mechanisms exist and why, seven years and hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in, it’s nonetheless but to have a contemporary tech stack.
“It’s different from normal B2B SaaS startups,” Thomas-Smith mentioned within the July replace.
“We’re building something that’s closer to how a country operates than a company, as we’re building our own entire economy with its own laws and norms.”
Town of New York actually didn’t agree. It will likely be attention-grabbing to see how this now performs out with London’s personal short-term rental legal guidelines.
We contacted Kiki for remark however didn’t obtain a response.
This story first appeared on SmartCompany. You may learn the unique right here.
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