It’s been a big week in real estate—particularly for company coffers.
Three major funding deals went down in the last week, with industry players investing in everything from artificial intelligence and electronic notaries to tech-driven property management.
Here’s the recap:
Lennar Invests In Notarize
Hot off its merger with CalAtlantic, the nation’s largest homebuilder took part in a $20 million funding round for Notarize—a platform that offers electronic notary services via webcam. Notarize recently launched its Notarize for Mortgage platform—arguably the last piece of the puzzle for a truly end-to-end digital mortgage.
Notarize is currently in use at Lenda, Mid America Mortgage, United Wholesale Mortgage and Eagle Home Mortgage—Lennar’s lending arm. The National Association of Realtors’ venture capital division—Second Century Ventures—as well as Realogy also took part.
According to Don Casey, head of Realogy’s title and closing division, “Moving toward a full digital closing has been one of our strategic objectives for some time, and Notarize has helped tackle the legal and technical barriers to help make the digital real estate transaction a reality.”
Mynd Gets $20 Million
Real-time property management platform Mynd also raised $20 million in a funding round this week, thanks, in large part, to Lightspeed Ventures. The venture capital firm previously funded popular tech like Flixster, Giphy, Grubhub and TaskRabbit.
Mynd was launched by Waypoint Homes founders Doug Brien and Colin Wiel in 2016 and offers full-service residential property management via app. As Will Kohler, partner at Lightspeed put it, “Residential property management is a massive, antiquated and highly fragmented industry. We believe it will be disrupted by a tech-enabled service company, with leaders who understand how to create efficiencies and scale for both owners and residents. Mynd stands out as the best candidate to be that company.”
Realogy Helps Fund OJO
Realogy—which owns some of the nation’s biggest real estate groups, including Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, Century 21 and Sotheby’s International Realty—also participated in the funding round for OJO Labs this week. Based in Austin, the company’s OJO digital assistant uses artificial intelligence to answer real estate-related questions and deliver real-time market data via mobile app.
According to OJO’s co-founder David Rubin, the AI allows the app to offer “personalized and intelligent” answers. “By combining natural language understanding with unique visual experiences and personalization, the product allows consumers to deeply engage in a purchase process prior to interacting with a salesperson."
As of a deal inked last year, OJO's lending partner is loanDepot.
