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Remote, brokerage-as-a-service platform Radius Agent has secured a second round of financing, again in the amount of $13 million.
The company said in a Nov. 2 press release that the Series B influx was led by AXA Venture Partners and Cota Capital with participation from NFX, funds from which will go to general scaling efforts and team expansion. Its May 2023 Series A was also $13 million.
The company describes itself as a “full-service, modern brokerage that provides real estate professionals and their teams with the support and tools needed to grow their business,” and does business in California, Texas, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Georgia and Florida.
Through a series of web-based training deliverables, custom software and its communal expertise model, Radius Agent functions equally as an ever-present advisor, as does a traditional broker. Its tech stack covers transaction management, digital contracts, and document automation and performance tracking, among other systems.
The uncommon model is resonating. Radius states that 2023 was a record year for growth, with an increase in agent count of 293 percent that augmented revenue growth by 330 percent.
Naturally, company founder and CEO Biju Ashokan is confident in the firm’s direction.
“Radius Agent is dedicated to supporting entrepreneurial agents, team leads and brokerage owners in building their own brands,” Ashokan said in the release. “We believe our success thus far is indicative of the visionary real estate professionals we’ve partnered with and our commitment to their needs and growth. I look forward to continuing to work with them to build out the services, technology and partnerships they need to not only stay competitive in the landscape, but lead it.”
Like Side, Real, Place and a few others, Radius offers agents a flexible, technology-forward approach to working under a brokerage brand. Gone are desks, fees for phones and licenses hanging in cheap frames, replaced with a modern sense of market ownership, consistent opportunities for mentorship and acceptance of how technology can advance relationships.
Radius said in the press release that it’s “helped more than 85,000 agents save six to eight hours per transaction and earn $28.5 billion in referrals.”
In 2015, the company was reviewed by Inman while under its previous name, Agentdesks, and functioned as a stand-alone mobile application akin to a CRM. It’s evolved tremendously since then.
NFX is the venture firm founded by Peter Flint, who co-started Trulia. He had an eye for Radius back in 2018, telling Inman that the company is upsetting a largely “analog, offline” industry.
“It’s not something I’d seen have any level of traction,” Flint told Inman five years ago. “Within Trulia and Zillow there are community forums for agent-to-agent communication, but that’s a desktop orientation. The real estate industry is fundamentally one of ‘coopetition’ — everyone cooperates with each other, and everyone competes with each other.”
Flint stands by his investment. “Since backing them at seed [round], we’ve been continuously impressed by the team’s ability to innovate and add features their customers need,” he said about the latest backing.
