As the iBuying craze grips the residential real estate industry, a startup that says it does that and more has secured $36 million in funding.
New York-based Perch said Tuesday that it had secured the equity injection from a group of investors led by Navitas Capital. The firm, which this month rebranded itself as Orchard, provides a service that allows homeowners to buy a new home before they sell their own, and guarantees to purchase the property if it fails to sell.
Orchard’s CEO and co-founder, Court Cunningham, described the firm’s product as a vertically integrated model, to streamline the entire home buying and selling process. Among the features on its online portal is a search function that uses artificial intelligence to suggest properties to customers based on the images they view. It also provides a title service that allows transaction paperwork to be filed online.
The firm offers to purchase a customer’s home for a fee if the home is not sold within 90 days of being listed on its online portal. Cunningham said in an interview that 85 percent of owners sell their homes at market price before the deadline.
By offering an iBuying service — whereby it purchases a home and flips it — the company is also going head-to-head with other firms that have launched similar products, including OpenDoor, Zillow and Redfin.
Cunningham said the latest funding will allow the firm to double its employee headcount to 300 by the end of the year, expanding its data science, marketing and broker divisions. He would not disclose the firm’s valuation or revenue figures, but said it has “over 1,000” customers.
Perch is headquartered in New York, but piloted its platform in Texas in early 2018, launching first in San Antonio and then expanding to Dallas. The firm has now raised a total of $69 million in equity from investors including Juxtapose and FirstMark and Accomplice. Last year, it also raised a $200 million debt package from an undisclosed lender.