Landed, a San Francisco-based company that is on a mission to help educators buy homes in the communities they serve, announced it raised $7.5 million in Series A funding led by Initialized Capital. To purchase the homes, Landed helps the educators with down payment assistance. This could help prevent teachers from leaving their jobs due to a lack of stable housing.
TechCrunch pointed out that more than half of the school district’s employees reported they considered leaving Berkeley, California due to high housing costs.
“Our mission is to help these people build financial security and help them remain committed to their communities,” said Landed co-founder Alex Lofton via TechCrunch. “We try to stay flexible to peoples realities. We don’t require people to buy in any particular city.”
So far, Landed has worked with more than 200 educators purchase homes in the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, and Denver. In the Bay Area, Landed gives a maximum amount of $120,000. However, most educators take less than that. And there is no income restriction to use Landed — which is advantageous over city-run housing programs.
What is the business model? Landed manages the fund and offers the down payment in exchange for a portion of the home’s appreciated value. And Landed receives money on every transaction. Using this funding round, Landed is going to expand to more cities and serve educators beyond K-12.
“I’ve followed the team at Landed for several years in their mission of providing more equitable access to homeownership to some of the most important community members – our educators and teachers,” added Initialized Capital partner Kim Mai-Cutler. “Not only is Landed attacking a profound issue affecting teacher retention in metros and school districts throughout the country, this is a promising market opportunity to build a trusted brand and institution to help essential professionals achieve their lifetime financial goals.
