Tech
This startup comes up with cash offers for homeowners in 24 hours. Check out the pitch deck Rive used to raise a $24 million Series A to make buying and selling real estate easier.
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- Finnish proptech Rive has just closed a 23 million euros (around $24 million) Series A funding round.
- It’s one of a tranche of startups aiming to help home buyers and sellers transact quickly.
- We got an exclusive look at the 14-slide pitch deck Rive used to raise the cash.
A Finnish property startup that aims to help people buy and sell homes quickly and conveniently has raised 23 million euros (around $24 million) as it looks to “streamline operations” and focus on profitability.
Helsinki-based proptech startup Rive, formerly iBuyer Kodit.io, has built a real-estate platform for agents, buyers and sellers. It offers a real estate brokerage service, instant cash offers to sellers, rent-to-buy schemes, and renovates properties so they are ready-to-go for buyers.
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Founded in 2017, the company has built tech to underwrite properties, price, and market them accurately. While listing some properties on the market, Rive also has a portfolio of its own. It buys properties to renovate and sell on so prospective homeowners don’t have to fix up their new home themselves, removing unknown costs and timeframes. Some of these properties will be rented out in its rent-to-buy scheme, where tenants pay “below market rent” to Rive while putting money aside for the house deposit. When they have saved enough, they can go down the traditional route to secure a mortgage.
Rive aims to improve on the real-estate industry’s current “bad” and uncertain processes, founder and CEO Kalle Salmi told Insider. For example, sellers currently don’t know how much their property will sell for, when the sale will happen, and when they have to move out. Rive gives sellers cash offers with time frames that suit their moving plans.
Salmi expects the housing market to dip in the next six to 12 months as the economy falters. There will be a decrease in pricing and fewer transactions but not a huge correction, he said.
Rive takes a commission on each transaction. “We need to grow faster if there are less transactions; we need to grow even faster to keep the top line growing,” Salmi said.
“There is clearly an increasing demand for the product. We offer liquidity; last year there was a lot of liquidity in the market so the product was less needed. Right now, we are seeing an increasing demand for the cash software product.”
The Series A is a whole equity round, led by IDC Ventures. Salmi would not disclose how much debt financing, which is often taken advantage of by asset-heavy businesses, the company has raised. The cash will be used to scale the platform and double down on existing markets of Finland, Poland and Spain, while Salmi also has his eye on profitability.
Rive’s raise, which was closed in two tranches and took nearly a year to finalize after a lengthy relationship building process, follows widespread layoffs across the tech ecosystem. Competitor Opendoor announced layoffs earlier this month, cutting 18% of its headcount.
Salmi said the firm would need to streamline. “We are not going to do any kind of huge layoffs, but, definitely, profitability is something we focus on and we have been focused on historically,” he said. “Regardless of the raise, as the cost of capital increases, you want to you want to start making profits sooner than later.”
The tough economic environment also means traditional real-estate agents may look to platforms like Rive to keep their productivity high, Salmi said. “I think a slowing market definitely has a silver lining for companies who are more efficient, more productive, than the traditional businesses in the space.”
Rive’s headcount stands at around 300, including its real-estate agents. It expects to grow the number of agents in the next six to 12 months while keeping business development and tech teams stable.
The company has so far acquired four real estate agencies and two rent-to-buy platforms, and will continue to invest in its M&A strategy. The fresh cash brings its total raised to 35 million euros.
Check out the 14-slide pitch deck the company used to raise the cash below.
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