Real estate technology company Compass announced on Monday that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire title and escrow software startup, Modus. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Modus, based in Seattle, will merge its 60-plus person team with Compass’s end-to-end real estate transaction platform. Founded in 2018 by Alex Day, Jai Sim and Abbas Guvenilir, Modus’ goal is to digitize the home-closing process by providing a transparent platform for agents and their clients.
“Compass has significantly accelerated our ability to provide agents with a more complete suite of services with this acquisition,” Compass Chief Technology Officer Joseph Sirosh said in a release. “Not only are we integrating Modus software into our platform – we’re also gaining an experienced team that comes with a deep understanding of building for, and driving adoption within, this complex and highly fragmented industry.”
The transaction is expected to close this month, Compass said. This will be the third software acquisition Compass has closed in the past 18 months, more recently acquiring CRM platform Contactually and acquiring the team behind artificial intelligence/machine learning company Detectica in 2019.
“Compass’ customer-first approach is right in line with the way we think about our business – since day one we have been focused on empowering agents and their clients by improving all aspects of the home-closing process,” Modus Cofounder and CEO Alex Day said in a release. “We are incredibly excited to become part of the Compass team at this pivotal time in our industry, and look forward to joining in their mission of building the future of real estate for agents and their clients.”
But this expansion has come with its share of growing pains. As a result of COVID-19, Compass laid off 15% of its staff in March in an attempt to mitigate the impact of the economic slowdown on its business. During that time, Compass CEO Robert Reffkin said he was reducing his own salary to $0 and said that the Compass executive team decided to reduce their salary by 25%.
In April, Compass rolled out virtual real estate tools in order to adapt to the changes COVID-19 has made on the industry.
