Real estate startup Planwise has closed a funding round with an investment from Second Century Ventures, a 5-year-old venture capital fund of the National Association of Realtors.
San Francisco-based Planwise launched in 2011 and recently completed NAR’s’ tech accelerator program, REach. NAR does not promise funding as part of the REach program, and companies are required to give Second Century Ventures an equity stake in addition to paying a $25,000 marketing fee.
Last month, Second Century Ventures Managing Director Constance Freedman said the fund planned to provide funding to one REach company in exchange for a larger ownership stake, and was evaluating whether to make similar investments in others.
NAR did not respond to a request to disclose how much Second Century Ventures had invested in the startup.
Planwise’s previous funding rounds have included a $225,000 seed round announced in June 2012. In addition to Second Century Ventures, this round included a mix of American and Australian angel investors, Planwise CEO Vincent Turner told Inman News.
The capital Second Century Ventures has provided is a testament to Planwise’s success in the REach program and in real estate, and will be used to boost the startup’s push into the real estate market, Planwise said.
The startup’s financial planning tool can be embedded within property listings to allow prospective homebuyers and real estate investors to enter their income, spending and debts to see and compare how particular properties would fit into their financial goals.
“Planwise is an essential part of the property transaction, delivering personalized financial insight to consumers while they are in the buying or selling process,” Freedman said in a statement.
“Planwise helps real estate agents better engage prospects and close transactions by giving buyers the confidence to move forward and understand the short- and long-term ramifications of one of the biggest investments they will ever make.”
Second Century Ventures has made investments in a number of real estate-related firms over the years, including DocuSign, voice-based marketing automation system Ifbyphone, and data management firm Symform. NAR itself has invested in realtor.com operator Move Inc., electronic lockbox firm SentriLock, and real estate forms software provider zipLogix.
Planwise rolled out features for real estate agents in August and struck a deal to integrate its tool into the broker and agent websites of real estate tech firm Tribus in September. In November, multiple listing service technology provider Solid Earth announced it would integrate Planwise’s financial planning tool into its Spring real estate platform this month.
Now, Planwise says more than 20 real estate and financial partners in the U.S. and Canada have rolled out the tool on their sites.
“The integration with real estate sites marks the first time a personal financial decision tool has been deployed to where the products and services people are actually buying live on the Internet,” Turner said in a statement.
He noted that Second Century Ventures’ investment will allow Planwise to expand its technology footprint “to one of the largest distribution channels in the country.”
REach is currently accepting applications for its class of 2014.
