Is Compass the one real estate tech startup to rule them all? The company certainly has enough money to do so.
Compass announced this week that it just raised another $400 million in its Series F funding round, which reportedly values the company at $4.4 billion.
The funding comes less than a year after the company raised $550 million, which included a $450 million investment from SoftBank Vision Fund, the investment arm of the Japanese technology company SoftBank.
At the time, Compass claimed that SoftBank’s $450 million investment was the “largest real estate technology investment” in the history of the U.S.
Now, just nine months after making the “largest real estate technology investment” in this country’s history, SoftBank is coming back for more.
According to Compass, SoftBank Vision Fund led this latest $400 million investment, along with Qatar Investment Authority. Also participating in the funding round were Wellington, IVP and Fidelity.
The funding brings Compass’ total capital raised to almost $1.2 billion, much of which was raised in the last year.
Compass, which bills itself as the “first modern real estate platform,” operates somewhat similarly to other online real estate listing sites like Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, and Redfin, but Compass makes its money differently.
Compass focuses on broker listings, and instead of generating revenue via ads, Compass takes a portion of the sale when a transaction is conducted through its platform.
According to Compass, the company is growing at an exponential rate. In this calendar year alone, Compass “more than tripled” its agent population to over 7,000. Compass also recently launched in San Diego, Dallas, Seattle, Philadelphia and Atlanta, and plans to launch in Austin, Nashville and Houston before the end of the year.
The company also operates in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Washington, D.C., Miami, Orange County, The Hamptons, Santa Barbara and Montecito, and Aspen.
The company said that it is on track to record more than $34 billion in sales volume this year, more than doubling its 2017 sales volume of $14.8 billion.
Compass also recently bought Pacific Union, the fifth largest brokerage in the nation and the biggest independent brokerage in California.
And with the new funding, there are no plans of slowing down.
Compass said that it plans to use the new money to expand internationally, fast-track its “2020 vision” of gaining 20% market share in the top 20 cities in the U.S. by 2020, and increasing its investment in technology.
“Real estate is the largest asset class in the world, and we are excited to bring Compass technology to international markets,” said Ori Allon, founder and executive chairman of Compass.
“Our incredible track record of growth in the U.S. validates our vision and sets us up for the global stage,” Allon added. “The support of our investors will strengthen the Compass mission to help everyone find their place in the world by advancing our national and global expansion and continue building our agent productivity platform through technology and innovation.”
This is SoftBank’s second massive real estate investment in the U.S. this week. SoftBank Vision Fund also invested $400 million in direct homebuyer Opendoor this week.
The company clearly sees an opportunity in the U.S. housing market.
“Compass’s continued growth is being driven by their commitment to empowering agents with best-in-class technology that helps them expand their business and better serve consumers,” said Justin Wilson, SoftBank Investment Adviser’s board representative. “We’re excited to continue to support Compass as they further invest in their data and technology capabilities to create a next generation platform for home transactions and ownership.”
