- Customer-focused digital home buying platform Prevu announced it has raised $2 million in funding
Prevu — a customer-focused digital home buying platform delivering industry-leading efficiency and savings — announced it closed $2 million in seed funding. This round of funding was led by Corigin Ventures. Kairos and AVG Basecamp Fund also contributed to the seed round.
And Prevu was designed to offer buyers an unparalleled value proposition. With Prevu, customers benefit from a seamless, modern online experience, and the opportunity to save time and money while taking greater control over the most important financial decision of their lives: purchasing a home.
“The bottom line is that the traditional residential real estate industry is antiquated and inefficient with the majority of agents pulling clients offline at the first opportunity to control the process. Buyers no longer need to rely on agents as the gatekeepers of information, which is available at their fingertips online. We were incredibly frustrated by our own experiences in buying real estate, and we sought to create a truly intuitive model that gives control back to consumers and eliminates a lot of the stress involved. Our Smart Buyer platform was created to address these inefficiencies and provide greater control to buyers while delivering rebates that help to offset the significant expenses involved in purchasing a home,” said Prevu co-founder Thomas Kutzman.
Prevu’s Smart Buyer platform offers buyers a sophisticated, zero-pressure approach to homebuying, creating an efficient structure that equips them with the tools, and advice needed to guide them through the early phases of the process while capitalizing on how consumers prefer to interact. And the company’s expert agents are on hand to answer questions along the way and step in during the complicated last-mile thus assisting buyers to schedule a tour, make an offer, negotiate a purchase, and close on a transaction – all through Prevu’s platform.
Even though the preponderance of buyers’ agents keep the full 3% commission paid on a transaction, Prevu passes two-thirds of its commission back to each buyer who completes a purchase on the platform, delivering a rebate of up to 2%. And this represents significant cost savings to buyers as customers who have used Prevu to purchase homes have received rebates of $23,000 on average.
“Prevu has been on a mission to save homebuyers money since launching our Smart Buyer™ platform in 2017. We have invested heavily in understanding the homebuyer, creating an environment that anticipates their needs and delivers a confidence-inspiring experience. Access to information has empowered consumers, creating less of a need for agents to be involved in the early stages of the process. Our platform recognizes this shifting consumer preference and gives consumers the tools they need to manage the process at their own pace, on their schedule and with the promise of a compelling, meaningful rebate,” added Prevu co-founder Chase Marsh.
Kutzman and Marsh launched Prevu to establish a smarter way to transact due to their shared frustration over the lack of control and transparency they experienced in the homebuying process. Both of them have backgrounds in finance roles. And Prevu’s creation was informed by their collective knowledge of the capital markets and experience evaluating public companies and equity market structures.
In evaluating the existing landscape of traditional and tech-enabled residential real estate brokerages, the partners found that the vast majority of traditional agents spend up to 70% of their time on new client acquisition with only 30% dedicated to customer service. Prevu’s technology is designed to drive agent efficiency, enabling its network of local experts to do a higher volume of deals and spend 100% of their time focused on customer service.
“We’ve had our eyes on this space ever since we invested in Compass in 2012. The traditional homebuying process is ripe for change, as buyers are empowered now more than ever to take control into their own hands – especially when it comes to search and exploration. Prevu has built an amazing brand around working with ‘smart buyers,’ and these consumers are thrilled to be able to put 2 percent of their purchase back into their pockets. We’re excited about partnering with Chase and Thomas and look forward to helping them build a very large business,” explained Corigin general partner Ryan Freedman — who is joining Prevu’s Board of Directors upon completion of the seed round.
This funding will enable the company to build its engineering team to further enhance its differentiated technology platform and strategically expand to new geographic markets.
