Over the last few years, HomeLight, an online real estate platform that initially used data and technology to connect home sellers with buyers and real estate agents, expanded its business to include mortgage lending, title and settlement services, and more.
The goal of the expansion? To reimagine and reshape the real estate journey for homebuyers and sellers.
And now, the company is planning to turbocharge its push towards that goal thanks to nearly $110 million in new financing.
HomeLight announced Tuesday that it secured $109 million in new financing to support its expansion into all areas of real estate.
According to the company, the financing round includes $63 million in Series C equity from venture capital partners, along with $46 million in additional funds to fuel the company’s expansion into mortgages.
HomeLight expanded into mortgages earlier this year when it bought Eave, a digital mortgage lending startup that launched last year.
The company rebranded the mortgage business to carry the name HomeLight Home Loans. The company claims that it has built a “faster application and underwriting process” that allows the company to guarantee that it can close a loan in 21 days with “zero lender fees and transparent rates.”
Beyond that expansion, HomeLight also launched its “Agent Services” division earlier this year to provide title and escrow services to agents and home sellers. The company plans to expand the title and escrow business to 30 markets in 2020.
Additionally, the company also launched a program this year that it calls “Simple Sale.” The aim of Simple Sale is to match home sellers with the growing number of iBuyers across the country.
And with the $63 million in new equity funding in hand, the company plans to “continue to expand its agent and investor matching platform, build consumer financial and lending products, and expand coverage of best-in-class transactional tools.”
According to the company, the funding round was led by Zeev Ventures, with participation from Group 11, Menlo Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Stereo Capital, and others, many of which participated in the company’s $40 million capital raise in 2017.
“HomeLight’s evolution from a single product company to a real estate platform aligns with our vision for the future of real estate,” said Oren Zeev, managing director of Zeev Ventures. “I am thrilled to partner with HomeLight to build the real estate platform and power the real estate transaction of the future.”
The company’s investors all support its journey from its real estate agent-matching beginnings to its future as an all-in-one real estate experience.
“We’ve been part of HomeLight since their seed stage and have been proud investors in each round since. HomeLight has innovation on its side, and a seven-year head start on other companies in the proptech space hoping to monetize agent referrals,” said Dovi Frances, founding partner of Group 11. “It’s the only consumer-centric, one-stop-shop marketplace for real estate needs, and we think the sky’s the limit for HomeLight’s future growth.”
HomeLight CEO and Founder Drew Uher said the latest round of financing shows a “significant vote of confidence” in the company’s goal of changing the face of real estate.
“We couldn’t have asked for a more trusted and committed group of partners in this journey,” Uher said. “We’re more excited than ever about the future of real estate and HomeLight’s ability to drive a better consumer and agent experience.”
