The Colombia-based startup Habi has raised $100 million in a Series B funding round led by the SoftBank Latin America Fund.
SoftBank is known for its several investments in real estate startups including Compass, OpenDoor, WeWork, and Katerra, which recently filed for Chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.
According to Forbes, Habi’s funding round marked the largest amount raised by a female CEO in Latin America.
Founded in 2019, Habi is an iBuyer that buys, flips, and sells homes using a proprietary pricing algorithm. It also allows homeowners to estimate the values of their homes.
Per Forbes’ report, around 100,000 Colombians have already received home value estimates from Habi. And, from May 2020 to May 2021, month-to-month transaction volume grew an average of 40 percent for the startup.
“Habi has built an incredible platform that is shaping the future of PropTech in Spanish-speaking Latin America,” said Shu Nyatta, Managing Partner at SoftBank’s SBLA Advisers Corp., in a press release. “Utilizing the information collected through its proprietary database, Habi is increasing liquidity in the market to create a better, more efficient residential ecosystem. We seek to invest in companies that are transforming the lives of those in the region and Habi is doing just that. We are excited to collaborate with Brynne, Sebastian and the entire team at Habi as they expand beyond Colombia.”
Other participants in Habi’s Series B fundraising round include Inspired Capital, Tiger Global, Homebrew and 8VC.
Back in August, Inspired Capital led Habi’s Series A fundraising round, during which, the startup raised $10 million with help from investors including 8VC, Clocktower, Homebrew, Zigg, and Vine Ventures.
“Colombia has a strong and growing middle class who are poised to be fast adopters to Habi’s high-tech solution. With our data-forward platform and key partnerships across the real estate and financial ecosystem, we are helping to create a market with increased transparency and liquidity,” co-founder and CEO Brynne Rojas told Contxto in August.
According to a report by TechCrunch, when she moved to Bogotá, Rojas found that the city lacked a central database for homebuyers to find and/or compare homes and their prices. During that time, sellers would post for-sale signs in their neighborhoods to find buyers. Together, with her business partner Sebastian Noguera, they sought a solution.
Today, Habi’s platform aims to end the fragmented process of buying and selling in local markets by offering an online database of residential real estate prices and trends. According to TechCrunch’s report, the startup then uses the information from the database to create an automated pricing algorithm for the iBuying business.
Habi currently operates in four cities including Bogotá, Medellín, Barranquilla, and Cali and has plans to expand into Mexico.
