Singapore’s co-living market is a far cry from its nascent days in the 2010s. Back then, the local market was extremely fragmented with numerous start-ups vying for dominance over the rental and flexible accommodation market. It was startups like Hmlet, co-founded by Yoan Kamalski in 2016, who were one of many emerging players attempting to establish a foothold in Singapore’s competitive short-term residential leasing market. Just before the Covid-19 pandemic fully hit our shores in 2019, Hmlet was one of the more recognisable co-living operators in Singapore. After just three years, the company was managing over 1,500 rooms in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Sydney. All in, the company completed three separate funding rounds, from its US$1.5 million seed funding in 2017, to a series A round that attracted US$6.5 million in 2018, and a series B round in July 2019 that raised US$40 million. But the company struggled to keep itself above the rising waters when the pandemic, which brought...