The real estate technology start-up Compass closed a $400 million series F financing on Thursday, taking its valuation to $4.4 billion. This round comes on the heels of $100 million in series E funding from Fidelity Investments and $450 million from Tokyo-based SoftBank, less than a year ago.
The capital will enable the New York-based startup to expand internationally. Softbank returned as an investor via its Softbank Vision Fund, while Qatar Investment Authority, Wellington, IVP and Fidelity also participated in this round. This investment will bring the total capital raised to nearly $1.2 billion.
ALSO READ: Microsoft opens a new tab to focus on B2B startups
With the series F round, Compass plans to gain 20 percent market share in the top 20 cities in the U.S. by 2020 and “double down on technology” with new products and initiatives.
The company, founded as Urban Compass in 2012, cleared $34 billion in sales in 2018 ($14.8 billion in 2017) and is on track to make $1 billion in revenues. It acquired Pacific Union International in August, and although Compass doesn’t rule out more M&A, this will never replace organic growth, according to Ori Allon, the co-founder (with CEO Robert Reffkin) and executive chairman of the startup.
ALSO READ: OYO Rooms raises $1 billion; becomes India’s second most valuable startup
Compass at its most basic offers a clear and easy way for property owners to list, market and sell properties, as well as follow through on the many pieces of complex transactional data that occur before and after the deal is made. But it has also built its business in a quite traditional way, too: by adding people.
The company says it now has more than 7,000 agents on the ground, triple the number it had in 2017, and is on track with a strategy to control 20 percent of all residential property sales in the US’s top 20 markets.