Dallas video firm OneDay reels in $19 million in new cash to continue expansion

OneDay, a Dallas company that launched its video marketing platform in the senior living industry, will use $19 million in new capital to expand into funeral homes and the multifamily leasing industry.

The new investment is being led by Volition Capital, a Boston private equity firm. The company previously raised $5.3 million in a 2019 funding round.

OneDay launched its core product, the OneDay for Senior Living platform, in 2017. The video marketing platform helps senior living communities attract prospective residents by providing video highlights of a property’s programs and amenities, as well as collecting recorded testimonials from residents. Clients can also use the platform to share videos about job openings or connect with hiring candidates.

The software also has a question-and-answer feature that senior living communities can use to help residents and their families preserve stories and memories for future generations. Using prompts, the app asks a question, records residents’ answers and automatically creates a high-quality video that can be shared with family members.

OneDay was born when co-founder and CEO Clint Lee, a University of North Texas graduate, and John Boaz, Lee’s stepfather and founder of OneDay, realized after the death of Boaz’s grandfather that their family had little video or audio to remember him with. Boaz had the idea to capture memories and stories of residents of senior living communities to preserve them for future generations. The two founded a technology company in 2012 with the intent of preserving stories, but realized the technology could have a wide range of uses.

“Our technology made it extremely easy to personalize the sales process in an industry that really needed that — to build human connections,” Lee said.

OneDay says it grew its customer base by more than 150% in 2020, bringing its total number of partnerships with senior living communities to nearly 5,000 across the U.S., the United Kingdom and Canada. It has also begun to expand its video-based platforms to other industries, hoping to replicate the success it’s found in the senior living space.

Earlier this year, the company launched Convey by OneDay, a platform that lets leasing agents for apartments and condominiums connect with prospective tenants, give virtual tours and communicate with potential residents throughout the sales process. Convey replicates many of the same features from the senior living platform, allowing properties to add videos to their marketing strategy to increase occupancy.

In June 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic put a hold on many in-person funerals and memorial services, the company launched its Reflect platform, which collects videos from users via an app and creates a “crowdsourced personal video documentary” to be shared with friends and family or kept as a keepsake.

OneDay has 41 employees and plans to add 20 more before the end of the year to support the growth of the Convey and Reflect products. The company has also doubled its office space, moving into a new 10,000 square foot office in the Design District in May.

“There is a significant growth opportunity for video platforms that increase real estate occupancy rates and improve resident experiences,” Sean Cantwell, managing partner at Volition Capital, said in a statement. The firm focuses on investments in founder-led companies, with over 30 investments in U.S. and Canadian companies and $1.1 billion in assets under management.

“OneDay’s self-serve video platform, market validation in senior living, and ambitious executive team have enabled it to build a strong brand and dominant market share across key categories,” Cantwell said. “We see OneDay strengthening its leadership position with a continued trend towards the use of personalized video content for tenant sales and engagement.”