- Homeward has announced it secured growth capital of $105 million, including $20 million in equity and $85 million in debt
Homeward has announced it secured growth capital of $105 million, including $20 million in equity and $85 million in debt. The $20 million of equity financing was led by Adams Street Partners with additional participation by Javelin Venture Partners and LiveOak Venture Partners. The $85 million in debt was secured from multiple institutional lenders. This funding round will enable Homeward to purchase more homes for its customers and expand its agent partnerships.
Adam Street’s Managing Partner and Head of Investments Jeffrey Diehl will be joining the board. Diehl led an early investment in BoomTown, which is one of the leading CRM solutions for real estate agents.
Jed Katz, Managing Director of Javelin Venture Partners, participated in this round as well. Katz is formerly a founder of Move.com and Rent.net.
Homeward founder and CEO Tim Heyl launched Homeward to empower modern real estate agents. Heyl is a top agent in the country and sold over 3,500 homes. He founded the Heyl Group in 2009 — which became one of the top 25 agent teams in the country.
Currently, 43% of home buyers have an existing home they need to sell before they buy their next one. And this hurdle can cause homeowners to delay their move indefinitely, which hurts both customers and their agents.
In order to solve this problem, Homeward works with agents to get their clients approved to make a Homeward all-cash offer. And agents can go directly to Homeward’s site and can register their clients in less than a minute. Plus Homeward then works to approve their client to make an all-cash offer.
Going forward, the company will be expanding its relationships with top agents in the three states it operates in: Texas, Colorado, and Georgia. The company plans to open its offering to agents nationwide in the near future.
Buyers that utilize Homeward’s all-cash offer get an average discount of 2 – 5% on their next home and are twice as likely to beat buyers who make mortgage-backed offers. And Homeward customers can also stay in their current home while they make improvements to their new property. They only move once and can control the timing of the move.
Key Quotes:
“Despite COVID-related volatility, we’ve continued to see strong customer and agent demand for our offering. Housing inventory is low right now, but demand remains high and customers are using our non-contingent cash offers to beat out other bidders.”
“Most technology companies have come from outside the real estate space and have tried to cut the agent out. We’re taking a much different approach. We empower agents with institutional capital so they can enable their clients to buy before they sell.”
– Tim Heyl, founder and CEO at Homeward.
“We are a selective investor, particularly in the current environment, but Homeward stood out. The company is growing rapidly, has strong leaders with deep industry experience, and has impressive traction with agent partners.”
– Jeffrey Diehl, Managing Partner at Adams Street Partners
“Homeward solves a long-term pain point for Realtors and their clients by making offers more competitive and home sales more certain We think they have an A+ team and a solid model that’s well positioned to scale in a way the industry and the capital markets will embrace.”
– Jed Katz, Managing Director of Javelin Venture Partners
“Homeward is built by a top agent who’s trying to empower us and not cut us out. Homeward understands the role agents should play in the transaction and that’s why we partnered with them. We use Homeward as a secret weapon to help win new clients and close contingent buyers a lot faster than we could before.”
– Lane Hornung, Founder & CEO of 8z Real Estate
“Working with Homeward, my clients got approved and made a winning offer within days. They were able to move into their new home first, then take their time to sell their old home, ultimately earning them $40,000 more than low-ball iBuyer offers.”
– Grant Rothberg, a top real estate agent in Houston.
