A Multiple Listing Service is not available in every country to help people purchase and sell houses. Unlike in the United States, this complicates the process because purchasers must sift through bogus and duplicate postings as well as limited pricing data.
According to firm CEO Helen Chen, who spoke to TechCrunch, property technology startup Nomad Homes is attempting to change that by delivering a tailored real estate purchase experience in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, a region with a $20 trillion real estate market.
She went on to say, “We’re like Stitch Fix for real estate.” “We’re looking for the right house for you. Instead of browsing through thousands of postings the usual way, you can take a style quiz,’ and we will match you with properties.” The Spruce House Partnership and 01 Advisors, an investment fund co-founded by former Twitter executives Dick Costolo and Adam Bain, led a $20 million Series A funding round for Nomad Homes today. Goodwater Capital, HighSage Ventures, Abstract Ventures, Partech, Class 5 Global, Precursor Ventures, and Alta Park Capital were among the new and existing investors who attended.
Spencer Rascoff, co-founder and former CEO of Zillow and Pacaso, through his firm 75 & Sunny, Opendoor CEO Eric Wu, former Compass COO/CFO David Snider, Flyhomes CEO Tushar Garg, Landis co-founders Cyril Berdugo and Tom Petit, and DST Global partner Saurabh Gupta were among the angel investors in the round.
Since Chen, Dan Piehler, and Damien Drap founded the company in 2019, they have funded a total of $24 million after bonding over seeking a place to reside in a new location. They’ve worked at Blackstone, Addepar, and Uber, and Chen dropped out of Stanford Graduate School of Business to create the business.
Nomad Homes is building its own MLS for the region, combining technology with local customer service skills to provide house purchasers with all of the information they require, from the initial search through financing and signing all of the forms. In a written statement, Dick Costolo, managing partner of 01 Advisors, said, “Nomad Homes has established an outstanding platform that is impacting the future of real estate across EMEA.” “The team’s goal is to increase market liquidity while also simplifying the customer experience. We’ve invested in comparable revolutionary businesses in the United States, and we’re looking forward to working with these entrepreneurs and their entire team as they grow.”
The company’s platform is currently live in Paris and Dubai, after announcing its debut and seed round in 2020. It’s growing into Southern Europe and bolstering its workforce in the US and Europe, the Series A provided an opportunity to expand into new areas and substantially invest in technology and product to improve the customer experience, Chen added, as transaction volumes increased by over 16 times in the first half of the year. A portion of the funds will be used to develop fintech products and double the company’s staff to 32 by the end of the year.
