Raising eyebrows throughout the real estate segment, Compass, a real estate technology company, announced that the SoftBank Vision Fund has agreed to invest $450 million, making it the largest real estate technology investment in U.S. history.
This investment will bring the total capital raised to $775 million. Compass will use the capital to expand to every major U.S. city and increase its investment in technology to further empower Compass agents and their clients.
Compass is a real estate technology company with an end-to-end platform that supports the entire buying and selling workflow.
Compass bills itself as the “first modern real estate platform.” It 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 the company, over the last 2 years, Compass has grown its agent population by 500 percent, driven by its “agent-centric technology,” which helps agents increase their commissions by 25% in their first year with the company.
Last month, the company said that it’s currently on track to complete 16,000 transactions and over $14 billion in sales in 2017, and is set to pull in more than $350 million in annual revenue.
Compass wants to erect a real estate platform which will reduce the friction and frustration associated with selling, buying, or renting a property by providing real estate agents with a set of powerful tools to increase efficiency and sales volume.
“The combination of technology and our partnership with top real estate agents who do outsized transaction volume will enable us to build the world’s largest real estate technology platform,” said Ori Allon, founder and executive chairman of Compass. “With the support of the SoftBank Vision Fund, we will be able to move quickly to execute our ‘Compass Everywhere’ vision, partnering with top agents and their clients in every major U.S. city. Just last week, we launched in Chicago with the number one agent team in the State of Illinois, and we are continuing to gain momentum with top agents everywhere.”
“Real estate is a huge asset class, but the sector has been relatively untouched by technology and remains inefficient and fragmented,” said Justin Wilson, a senior investment professional at the SoftBank Vision Fund. “Compass is building a differentiated, end-to-end tech platform that aggregates across diverse data streams to support agents and homebuyers through the entire process, well beyond the initial home search. With disruptive technology and unique data advantages, Compass is well-positioned for future growth in a sector that represents trillions in transaction volume.”
Over the last 24 months, Compass grew its agent population by 500 percent. Top agents are attracted to Compass because of their agent-centric technology, which helps drive a 25 percent increase in commissions income in an agent’s first year with the company. The clients of Compass agents benefit from the technology by selling their homes more quickly and at higher prices. Buyers benefit from a more efficient process. With this capital infusion, Compass will bring these benefits to more top agents and their clients in cities across the U.S.
