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Zeus Living Profile: Pandemic Layoffs, Business Model, and Current Status

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  • Category: travel and hospitality
  • Pandemic layoffs: about 150 employees in two rounds, March and May 2020; 60% of staff in total
  • Last updated: 2026-09-25

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  • Reader shorthand: an Airbnb-backed San Francisco startup that rented furnished homes to business travelers, cut 60% of its staff in spring 2020, said it would return a PPP loan, and shut down in November 2023.
  • What Zeus Living did for customers: leased homes, furnished them and rented them for stays of more than 30 days, mainly to business travelers and to companies housing their staff.
  • What broke in the pandemic: occupancy fell from 90% to below 40%, and Zeus told landlords it would not pay April and May 2020 rent.
  • Relief role: none; it was not a lender or support provider.
  • Own relief: it applied for a PPP loan and in May 2020 said it had decided to return it. SBA's PPP loan data list no loan to Zeus Living.

Founders, Executives, and Investors

Kulveer Taggar (CEO), Joe Wong (CTO) and Srini Panguluri (COO) co-founded Zeus. Its 2019 funding release dated the launch to 2015; Business of Business later put the founding in 2016 and noted that the company went through Y Combinator.

In December 2019 Zeus raised a $55 million Series B from new investors Airbnb, Comcast, CEAS Investments and TI Platform Management, joined by existing investors Alumni Ventures Group, Initialized Capital, NFX and Spike Ventures. Business Insider reported the round valued Zeus at $205 million, after $14 million raised in two earlier rounds. Initialized co-founder Garry Tan sat on the board.

Business Before the Pandemic

At the end of 2019 Zeus had more than 2,000 homes in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and Washington, D.C., and said its portfolio of homes had grown 300% year over year. The average stay was three months. Enterprise clients included Brex, Disney, ServiceTitan and Samsara, and the scooter company Bird used Zeus in place of extended-stay hotels for its employees. Business of Business reported that the company had 240 staff by 2019.

What the Pandemic Changed

Business Insider reported on March 24, 2020 that Zeus had laid off 30% of its staff, almost 80 people, citing "the effects of COVID-19 on the real estate industry." In April, Business Insider reported, it told landlords it would not pay April and May rent and asked them to move from leases to revenue-share agreements.

On May 12, Taggar announced a second cut of 73 employees, almost half of those remaining. He wrote that he expected revenue at 55% of the company's original plan, that Zeus would have fewer homes, and that it had decided to return the PPP loan it had applied for. The week before, Bloomberg had reported a $15 million equity-and-debt raise at a $110 million valuation, about half the December price, from existing investors CEAS Investments I, Initialized Capital Management and Soros Fund Management; Airbnb did not take part. Departing staff received severance, one month of health insurance, paid-out vacation days and their laptops.

Business After the First Shock

Business of Business reported in February 2021 that Zeus had cut 60% of its staff in total and that about $10 million in contracts had been canceled by June 2020. It found new renters in traveling healthcare workers, construction workers and students whose campuses had closed, and new demand in Austin, Miami and Nashville as people left Silicon Valley; occupancy was back to 85% by July 2020 and the home count had doubled from about 2,000. Revenue had not yet returned to its pre-pandemic level. In 2022 Zeus cut its workforce in half again, citing "market volatility" and "the possibility of recession."

Where the Company Is Now

Zeus Living shut down in November 2023 after eight years and $150 million in venture funding. A Nov. 6 email to property owners said the company had been "struggling financially" and was winding down, and that it had struggled to make timely payments for months. Property owners were to be transferred to Blueground, and the remaining staff of about 120 were laid off.

Source Notes

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