A Wilmington-headquartered firm has received an investment of more than $300 million to fuel growth, according to an announcement on Wednesday.
 
Vantaca, a community association management software company, announced a $300 million-plus minority growth investment from Boston-based private equity firm Cove Hill Partners and a company valuation of $1.25 billion on Wednesday.
 
The investment will help accelerate Vantaca’s market expansion, according to a news release, and the recent valuation marks Vantaca’s “unicorn status,” which refers to a privately held company valued at $1 billion or more.
 
Cove Hill Partners joins JMI Equity, Vantaca’s existing minority investor, in supporting the company’s “vision and next phase of growth,” the release stated. In an emailed statement, Vantaca CEO Ben Currin called the investment a “major milestone.”
 
“It validates the strength of our platform, the trust our customers place in us and the impact we’re driving across the industry every day,” he wrote. “With this investment, we’ll be able to accelerate innovation, continue to expand and develop our teams and further enhance the customer experience, all while continuing to scale responsibly.”
 
“It positions us to move faster and go bigger: deepening our AI capabilities, expanding the reach of our platform and delivering even more value to the growing community management market,” he added.
 
The investment builds on Vantaca’s “consistent growth trajectory,” according to the release, including a 95% revenue increase over the last year. The company has landed on the Inc. 5000 list, which ranks the 5,000 fastest-growing, privately held U.S. companies, for five consecutive years.
 
Today, Vantaca serves more than 500 management companies and six million households nationwide, according to the release.
 
Vantaca was founded in 2017 by Dave Sweyer, following frustration with the lack of software capabilities within his community association management firm, Community Association Management Services (CAMS). After solidifying the idea and spinning it off from CAMS, Sweyer handed the reins to Currin.
 
Last fall, the company acquired HOAi, a California-based firm that provides AI technology for the HOA and community management industry, helping streamline financial analysis and automate document management, among other functions.
 
Vantaca currently employs over 270 people, with more than half of its employees based in Wilmington, according to Currin.
 
The recent investment will help fuel Vantaca’s expansion of an “AI-driven transformation” of community association management companies, according to the release, along with fueling market momentum and ecosystem expansion.
 
Currin stated the company’s focus is deepening its “leadership within the community association management ecosystem,” which includes management companies, banks, integrated partners, vendors and residents.
 
“With this investment, we can move even faster on that vision. We’ll accelerate innovation across our HOAi platform, expand our integrations and build new capabilities that make it easier for every stakeholder to work smarter, faster and more collaboratively,” Currin wrote. “That’s how we create value across the ecosystem, not just for management companies, but for the entire network they support.”
 
Within the next year, Vantaca aims to continue expanding nationwide and to bring “new automation and AI-driven agentic capabilities to market,” Currin wrote.
 
"Vantaca represents the rare combination of market leadership, technological innovation and exceptional execution that we believe defines category-winning companies," Jane Levy Vance, cofounder and partner with Cove Hill Partners, wrote in the release. "We believe their AI-first approach has sustainable competitive advantages and delivers significant value to customers. We're excited to partner with the Vantaca team as they scale their platform, introduce new capabilities and expand into new markets."