Israeli-Founded Real Estate Platform Compass Raises $370M At $6.4B Valuation

Compass, the New York-based online property tech startup co-founded by Israeli-born entrepreneur Ori Allon and American businessman Robert Reffkin in 2012, announced the closure of a whopping $370 million Series G funding round at a $6.4 billion valuation, TechCrunch reported.

Sources told TechCrunch Compass was now “eyeing up an IPO (initial public offering,) likely sometime in the next 24 months.”

The funds, raised by previous investors such as Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), Dragoneer Investment Group, and SoftBank Vision Fund, as well as Founders Fund, Qatar Investment Authority, and others, will be used to expand globally and grow R&D and product development teams, according to the announcement.

The company has raised more than $1.5 billion to date. Ten months ago, it had a $4.4 billion valuation.

The platform is not just a marketplace to connect buyers and sellers to real estate agents. Its AI-powered engine also helps point to the right pricing, timing and home-staging.

“From day one we knew, when we had just a small amount of people at the company, we had a very clear focus,” said co-founder and chairman Ori Allon said in an interview, as reported in TechCrunch. “We wanted to bring more tech and data and transparency to real estate, and I think it’s paid off.”

Compass president Leonard Steinberg told Forbes in 2017 that Compass was the “real estate industry’s answer to the modern way people like to shop. Today, everything is about curation and personalization. With that in mind, we set out to build an intuitive and visually compelling way for clients and consumers to search for a home and interact with our agents.”

Since its last funding round in September 2018 when it raised $400 million, Compass has acquired Contactually, a cloud-based
customer relationship management system, California-based Alain Pinel Realtors and New York real-estate brokerage Stribling & Associates.

Earlier this month, the company was sued by competitor Realogy Holdings Corp., the parent company of Corcoran Group, Sotheby’s International Realty, Coldwell Banker and other real-estate firms, which claimed Compass had “engaged in unfair and illegal practices to gain market share,” the Wall Street Journal reported. Realogy accused Compass of stealing trade secrets and encouraging agents to break their non-compete agreement. Compass denied the allegations.