UPDATED 23:43 EDT / AUGUST 31 2016

NEWS

Technology-driven real estate platform startup Compass raises $75m on $1b+ valuation

Technology-driven real estate platform startup Compass (Urban Compass, Inc.) has raised $75 million Series C in a round led by Wellington Management Company LLP that included existing investors IVP, Thrive Capital, 406 Ventures and Founders Fund.

According to reports, the round was raised on a valuation “above $1 billion.”

Founded in 2012, Compass offers a technology-driven real estate platform dedicated to providing seamless and intelligent home buying, selling and renting by combining proprietary market insights and integrated mobile and web technologies.

Describing itself as providing a “revolution in real estate,” the platform is said to provide the smartest tools built by the “brightest minds” in engineering, design, and strategy and is “changing how agents and clients navigate the process of finding or selling a home.”

Earlier in 2016 Compass launched Compass Markets, the first national real-time market report via a mobile app, designed to replace stale quarterly market reports with up-to-the-minute housing data so consumers and agents can make better real estate decisions. In addition, the company offers an agent-only app that is designed to make the entire real estate process simple through one-stop marketing, property valuation, and open house capabilities.

Compass has 24 offices nationwide and represents approximately $7 billion in annual sales. It is now the fourth largest brokerage in its hometown of New York City, the largest in East Hampton, holds third place in Washington DC and second place in Cambridge by sales volume.

“When it comes to technology, the real estate industry is fragmented and regional systems don’t talk to each other,” Compass Founder and Executive Chairman Ori Allon said in a statement. “There is no reason the real estate process shouldn’t be transparent, convenient, expedient, and intuitive. Compass is aiming to change that.”

Interesting

While online real estate is a highly competitive space, Compass interestingly eschews the advertising model in favor of broker listings and makes its money by taking a cut of transactions versus charging for listings.

Their tools are geared towards making management of real estate listings through the whole cycle of selling easier as well, and given their numbers so far they seem to be doing a decent job of it.

Including the new round, Compass has raised $208 million to date; previous investors who did not participate in the new round include Advance Publications, Corigin Ventures, Cyrus Massoumi, Goldman Sachs, Marc Benioff and Three Tree Ventures.

The company said it would use the new funding to accelerate their growth into new markets and inject transformative technology to improve the experience for consumers and agents.

Image credit: Compass.

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