By Manya Saini
(Reuters) – HomeLight said on Thursday it had raised $115 million in a late-stage funding round that valued the real-estate home technology platform at $1.7 billion.
The series D funding round, which brought $60 million in equity and $55 million in debt, comes at a time the U.S. housing market is slowing due to rising mortgage rates and the prospect of aggressive rate hikes eating into homebuying demand.
Earlier this week, real estate brokers Compass Inc and Redfin Corp said they will layoff employees to combat rising inflationary pressures.
“In a time period with so much volatility in the capital markets, our business is stronger than ever,” said Drew Uher, founder and chief executive officer of HomeLight.
HomeLight’s platform bridges the gap between home buyers, sellers and real estate agents, as well as assists customers with securing mortgages and completing other formalities related to purchasing.
Its growth has been in tandem with the U.S. residential real-estate market which had thrived over the last few years buoyed by ultra-low interest rates and sustained demand for bigger homes driving up prices.
The company’s existing investors include Citi Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Alphabet Inc’s GV and Zeev Ventures, according to its website.
HomeLight said on Thursday it had acquired Denver-based fintech lender Accept.inc, which gives homebuyers a way to submit all-cash offers on a property upon qualifying for a mortgage.
It said it had achieved 500% year-over-year growth in transaction volume for HomeLight cash offer feature, which allows users to make all-cash transactions, as of April 2022.
It intends to expand the feature in new markets, where Accept.inc operates in, in the coming months.
(Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
