Door Opens For Opendoor’s $400M SoftBank Funding

In fundraising news on Thursday (Sept. 27), Opendoor, the home selling startup, said that it has raised $400 million from SoftBank’s Vision Fund.

As VentureBeat noted, the latest announcement comes on the heels of a $325 million fundraising round seen three months ago, that time as a Series E.

The cumulative tally raised to date comes to more than $1 billion in venture capital money that has come to the startup’s coffers, in addition to $2 billion that had been raised through debt.

In an interview with VentureBeat, CEO Eric Wu told the publication that discussions with SoftBank had been in place as the aforementioned Series E was taking shape.

Opendoor traces its genesis to 2013, and looks to speed and streamline the process of home buying and selling. The platform partners with agents to assist in the buying and selling process. As VentureBeat explained, app users list their homes, and Opendoor bids on the homes “sight unseen” as an attendant inspection is performed. The fees paid by the sellers come to about 6.5 percent, and transactions close in a matter of days. The average time to resell a home is 90 days, the company has said. During the buying process, users can browse through the site and schedule viewings.

The company, said Wu, will be able to weather housing market downturns. He said that “the value proposition that we’re offering increases [in those periods], as there’s more pain and stress for the seller.” He added that the company holds a wealth of data about its respective markets – currently numbering 19 cities – than that held by traditional real estate companies. The company also acquired a listings site called Open Listings earlier in 2018.

“Earlier this year, we had a goal to be able to launch a new city a month, and with the new partnership with SoftBank, we’re now doing two cities a month,” VentureBeat quoted Wu as saying. The goal is to be in 50 cities by 2020, he said.