Opendoor, an online real estate marketplace, has raised a $400m investment from the SoftBank Vision Fund.
Alongside the deployment of funds, the company announced it has gained access to over $2bn in debt financing from top banks. The company has also raised a total of $1bn in equity financing.
Through the new capital line, the company will look to speed up the development of its technology platform. The main areas of technology growth include the development of a platform to enable a user to buy, sell or trade-in a home in 1-click, starting with the integration of the recently acquired Open Listings buyer platform.
Capital will be used to add new services such as title and mortgage, building applications for supporting local ecosystems with contractors, landscapers, painters and home cleaners, and the creation of real-time market pricing models in over 50 cities.
As part of the deal, SoftBank investment adviser Jeffrey Housenbold will join the company board of directors.
Founded by a number of tech entrepreneurs, including RentAdvisor co-founder Eric Wu and venture capitalist Keith Rabois, Opendoor aims to help homeowners sell their property more quickly by offering to buy it from them.
Instead of hiring a listing agent, sellers upload information about their home on Opendoor website and receive a cash offer from the startup, usually within 48 hours. If the homeowner accepts, Opendoor makes minor repairs and puts the property back on the market.
The company uses market data and software tools to understand how much it can make by buying, fixing up, listing and selling homes.
Over the past year, the company has seen strong growth including the launch of its services to an additional 13 cities, with plans to reach 50 by 2020. In line with this, Opendoor has added 500 employees to its team, with it expected to have 1,000 employees by the end of the year.
Opendoor also raised its annual acquisition run rate to $3.8bn from $1.2bn since January.
Opendoor founder and CEO Eric Wu said, ?SoftBank understands that the traditional process of buying and selling a home is complicated, uncertain, and stressful for millions of people, and that Opendoor radically improves the experience.
?Were excited to widen our ambitions as we launch new products, expand our services, and build an end-to-end experience for millions of people moving each year.p>
Earlier this year, Opendoor raised $325m in its Series E round of funding which was backed by firms including General Atlantic, Access Technology Ventures and Lennar Corporation, among others.
Copyright ? 2018 FinTech Global
