At a Glance
- Legal name
- Uniplaces, Lda. (Portugal)
- Registry number
- N/A · verify
- Jurisdiction
- Portugal
- Ownership
- private
- Employees
- 51-200
- Revenue (est.)
- $1-10M
- Headquarters
- Rua Rodrigues Faria 103, 1300-501 Lisbon
Uniplaces is a Lisbon-founded marketplace for student and mid-term rental housing across European university cities. Founded in 2013 by Ben Grech, Miguel Amaro and Mariano Kostelec - three ex-King's College London students who had personally struggle…
Uniplaces is a Lisbon-founded marketplace for student and mid-term rental housing across European university cities. Founded in 2013 by Ben Grech, Miguel Amaro and Mariano Kostelec - three ex-King's College London students who had personally struggled to find apartments abroad - the platform targets the mid-term (one-to-twelve months) rental segment that sits between short-term platforms like Airbnb and full long-term lettings. It operates in dozens of cities including Lisbon, Porto, Madrid, Barcelona, Rome, Milan, Berlin and Paris.\n\nThe company raised a Series B of $24M in 2016 led by Atomico, with Octopus Ventures and Shilling Capital Partners participating across earlier rounds. After a tough 2018-2020 stretch that included rightsizing, Uniplaces refocused on supply quality, verified landlords and integrated rental guarantees. Student mobility post-COVID and pan-European digital-nomad flows have returned the business to growth. The legal entity is Uniplaces, Lda. - a Portuguese Sociedade por Quotas - which is an unusual structure at Series B (most peers would have redomiciled to Delaware or the UK by that point).
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Estonia e-Residency play
Uniplaces is a useful counterpoint to the Delaware-parented majority in this list. Ben Grech, Miguel Amaro and Mariano Kostelec kept the company's legal home in Portugal as a Sociedade por Quotas (Lda.) even after raising a $24M Series B from Atomico in 2016. The reasons are a mix of founder preference, a European investor base that was comfortable with Portuguese corporate law, and a commercial model (EU student housing) where there was no meaningful US TAM to justify a US parent. This is the decision many European-focused marketplaces eventually make, and Uniplaces is a clean reference for it.\n\nThe Portuguese Lda.
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Capital markets path
structure has real constraints at Series B/C. Preferred shares do not map cleanly onto Portuguese quotas - investors either accept ordinary-quota structures with heavy shareholder-agreement overlays, or the company carves out a UK/Luxembourg feeder that issues preferred shares and in turn holds the Portuguese Lda. Uniplaces took the shareholder-agreement route, which is workable but makes a US IPO or large US growth round materially harder. In practice this is the trade the founders accepted: lower maximum exit multiple in exchange for simpler local operations and more founder control.\n\nThe company's operational story is also illustrative of the Lisbon ecosystem's 2015-2020 arc.
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Estonia e-Residency play
It scaled fast, over-scaled, rightsized, and rebuilt around unit economics. Web Summit's relocation to Lisbon and the NHR regime (pre-2024) drove up long-term rent demand; Uniplaces pivoted from pure-student toward nomad-friendly mid-term housing. The 2024 NHR overhaul has changed the composition of that demand (fewer high-income foreign retirees, more on-payroll remote workers), but the structural shortage of quality mid-term stock in Lisbon, Madrid and Milan continues to favour supply-marketplace models. Uniplaces today runs profitably on a smaller cost base than at peak.
Corporate Timeline
- Jan 2012Incorporation
Uniplaces founded
Founded in 2012.
Replicate Uniplaces's structure in 4 steps
The formation playbook, distilled from how this company was actually set up.
Portuguese Lda
Uniplaces-style pure-PT structure: Sociedade por Quotas (Lda.) or Unipessoal Lda.
Estonia e-Residency play
with effectively 1 EUR per quota minimum but practically a few thousand EUR paid in.
Estonia e-Residency play
Incorporate via Empresa na Hora (one-hour online incorporation) or through a notary.
Portuguese Lda
Register at IRN (Registo Comercial), obtain NIF and VAT, file RCBE beneficial-owner declaration. For Series B-scale fundraising from European VCs, expect a detailed shareholder agreement handling preferred-style rights (liquidation preference, anti-dilution, information rights) since Portuguese quotas do not natively support multi-class preferred stock.
Recent News & Filings
- Uniplaces Review – Is it Safe and Legit? (April 2026) - Traders UnionTraders Union · 21 Mar 2025
- Spotahome Vs Housing Anywhere Vs Uniplaces - onlinemarketplaces.comonlinemarketplaces.com · 16 Jul 2020
- A student-housing startup grows to 100 employees by being selective about its employees — and its investors - Business InsiderBusiness Insider · 17 Jan 2020
- Building the global market leader in arranging student accommodation - interview with Uniplaces co-founder Mariano Kostelec - EU-StartupsEU-Startups · 26 May 2017
- The three friends making it easier for students to rent a room - BBCBBC · 30 Jan 2017
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Uniplaces do?
It is an online marketplace for mid-term (one-to-twelve months) student and young-professional housing across European university cities.
Is Uniplaces a Portuguese company?
Yes - Uniplaces is a Portuguese Lda. (Sociedade por Quotas) headquartered in Lisbon. Unlike most of its unicorn peers, it did not redomicile the parent to Delaware.
Who invested in Uniplaces?
Series B was led by Atomico in 2016, with participation from Octopus Ventures, Shilling Capital Partners and others.
Does Uniplaces compete with Airbnb?
Only partially. Airbnb dominates short-term (sub-30 day) stays; Uniplaces focuses on mid-term student and young-professional rentals of one to twelve months.
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