Folio, a Google Chrome extension that helps real estate agents manage all parts of a real estate deal from within their email, is currently used in approximately 5% of the nation’s real estate deals.
But that percentage could soon grow, as the Amitree, the company that makes Folio, recently raised more than $7 million to fund the company’s growth.
Specifically, the company raised $7.128 million in its Series A round of funding.
According to the company, more than 200,000 real estate transactions have been managed through the Folio software to date, and according to Google Chrome Store stats, more than 30,000 agents have Folio installed.
The company wants to grow both of those numbers and will put its recently raised capital toward that goal.
“So much real-estate focused technology is about disrupting the market in some attempt to replace real-estate agents, yet homebuyers and sellers rely on these agents for their experience and expertise more than ever before,” Jonathan Aizen, founder and CEO of Amitree, said. “Our goal is to empower the real estate agent and give them tools that help them do more of what they do best: put people in their dream homes and help them through that huge transition in life.”
The company bills Folio as a “smart transaction assistant” for real estate agent. Here’s how the Folio works, directly from the company:
Folio uses machine learning to process millions of emails and understand what's going on with every one of an agent's transactions. Folio helps agents manage their workflow, creating smart folders for each transaction that automatically sort an agent's emails, files, and contacts. When looking at an email related to a transaction, real estate agents see contextual information right inside their email client that contains the transaction timeline, files, contacts, and status.
The round of funding was led by Vertical Venture Partners, with participation from existing investors, including Accel Partners.
Also participating in the funding was Seven Peaks Ventures, led by Tom Gonser, a partner at Seven Peaks and the founder of DocuSign. Through the investment, Gonser joined the board of Amitree.
“Real estate is going through a shift toward more intelligent tools that help streamline the experience,” Gonser said. “Electronic signatures were the beginning of this wave, and tools like Folio are the next step in enabling the real estate agent to bring more efficiency to their business through machine learning and vertical-specific AI that’s built for them.”
