How Modus Was Able To Get An Investment From Trulia Founder Pete Flint

By Noah Long • Nov 11, 2019
  • Real estate technology company Modus unveiled recently that it raised $12.5 million in funding. Here is how an investment from Trulia founder Pete Flint came together.

Modus is a real estate technology company that plans to significantly improve security, client experience, and clarity throughout the home closing process. And the founders of Modus were deeply interested in working with Trulia founder and NFX partner Pete Flint so they cold-emailed him over several months.

Flint had taken Trulia public and oversaw its sale to Zillow for $3.5 billion in 2014. The cold-emailing did not work out until they were at a coffee shop below his office in San Francisco. So the Modus founders Alex Day, Jai Sim, and Abbas Guvenilir emailed him again at that moment. Fortunately, the timing worked out for Flint and the meeting happened according to TechCrunch.

Recently, Modus announced it raised $12.5 million in Series A funding co-led by Flint and Niki Pezeshki of Felicis Ventures. Liquid 2 Ventures and existing investors Mucker Capital, Hustle Fund, 500 Startups, Rambleside, and Cascadia Ventures also joined the round.

“The first revolution in online real estate was transforming the research experience, the next revolution in the industry is transforming the transaction,” said Flint in a statement via TechCrunch.

Modus officially launched last year within the Washington state area. And Modus is led by former employees of a defunct lunch delivery service called Peach. Modus has built software for helping agents and homebuyers navigate the home closing process. Even though Modus is starting with the escrow process, the company is planning to eventually power all real estate transactions. And the company wants its brand to be synonymous with home closing.

The Series A round of funding had closed in May. But the funding round was made public recently. With the funding round, Modus increased its headcount to 50 people across product, engineering, and operations. And the company has a goal of providing its software to home buyers in 15 to 20 states in the next two years.