Roofstock, a popular online real estate investment marketplace based in Oakland City in California, announced last Friday that it raised $240 million in a Series E equity financing round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2.
The funding gives the company a valuation of $1.94 billion. Existing and new investors involve over a dozen of firms, including Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Bain Capital Ventures, Canvas Ventures, Citi Ventures, First American Financial etc. DoorDash Angels also participated in the funding round.
Roofstock disclosed that it plans to use the fresh funding to accelerate its growth. The real estate firm intends to use the capital to double the headcount of its staff, including hiring across all roles from engineering and product to marketing, analytics, and operations.
Roofstock also wants to use the funds to bring more industry-leading solutions to the market and improve accessibility and liquidity in the real estate asset class. The company intends to develop products and services to optimize portfolios, expand its property management footprint, transform into other forms of real estate investing, and grow its suite of services for landlords to include analytics and banking-related services.
Roofstock also said that the fresh funding would help expand its strategic M&A efforts on top of the three previous acquisitions that the firm completed since its inception, including Streetlane Homes, Stessa, and Great Jones.
Gary Beasley, CEO and co-founder of Roofstock, talked about the development and said: “We’re grateful for the continued support from our new and existing investors and stakeholders who share our vision to make this a modern, radically accessible asset class. I could not be more excited to welcome our partners from SoftBank to join us on this ambitious journey.”
Democratizing Real Estate Investing
Founded in March 2015, Roofstock is an online real estate marketplace that continues serving clients who are looking to purchase and sell rental properties, including single-family rentals, among others.
Last August, Roofstock acquired property management tech platform Great Jones to simplify property management for its rapidly rising user base of remote retail investors.
The real estate investment marketplace grows rapidly with innovative offerings and new markets. In 2019, Roofstock achieved many key growth milestones, including more than doubling its investor base in under a year by 126%, and 75% of its users were first-time real estate investors.
Roofstock’s revolutionary model equips customers with the tools and resources required to get started, scale-up in real estate investing and rental portfolios, and in-depth analysis to help new and seasoned investors find properties with ease. The marketplace continues attracting a new generation of investors that want the passive returns real estate offers with the freedom to treat their investments like a stock portfolio.
Image source: Shutterstock