PropTech company Homeward has closed a $4m equity funding round and secured $21m in debt funding.
The equity round was led by LiveOak Venture Partners, the early-stage venture capital firm. The founders of Opcity, the PropTech company, also contributed to the raise as did Apartment List, a renting platform.
Genesis Capital, the independent investment and merchant banking firm, and Keystone Bank, a local Austin bank, supported the $21m in debt funding side of the new capital injection.
Homeward provides homebuyers with credit for their home equity up front. This gives them the chance to make an all-cash offer to secure their next home using the company’s funds. Moreover, they get a floor price guarantee on their existing home in case they’re unable to sell it for its full market value.
The new funding will enable Homeward to scale this model further. Additionally, it will be used to boosts its support teams and acquisition initiatives. It will also aim to improve its web and mobile customer experience.
“The current process of home buying is backwards,” said Tim Heyl, founder and CEO at Homeward. “Buyers have to sell their existing home and then rush to find a new one. We remove this uncertainty by letting buyers use our cash to secure their next home first. Then they can take their time and sell their existing home for its full market value.”
Commenting on why LiveOak Venture Partners invested in Homeward, the company’s founding partner Krishna Srinivasan stated that the venture capital firm was used to partnering with “exceptional entrepreneurs who are looking to transform large established industries.”
Srinivasah continued, “We recognized early on after meeting with Tim, given his incredible domain expertise and accomplishments and our experience as the first institutional investor in Opcity and Ojo Labs, that Homeward has real potential to disrupt the real estate market by empowering the consumer. Our team is excited to invest and support the Homeward team as they reshape the broken legacy process of buying and selling homes.”
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