Photographer: Bing Guan/Bloomberg
Photographer: Bing Guan/Bloomberg
Real estate technology business Side Inc. said it’s now valued at $1 billion after a $150 million funding round led by Coatue Management.
The round brings Side’s fundraising total to $200 million to date, according to a statement. Other investors in the company include Trinity Ventures, Matrix Partners and Sapphire Ventures.
San Francisco-based Side works with residential and commercial real estate agents to provide a customized technology platform.
“The real estate market is kind of ripe for change and innovation,” said Patricia Nakache, general partner at Trinity Ventures and a Side board member.
While traditional brokerages leverage agents to build their brokerage brand, Side helps agents build their own brands, Nakache said. “You will never see the Side logo,” she said.
Nakache contrasted Side’s white-label model with that of Compass Inc., which she sees as a more traditional brokerage. Compass, backed by SoftBank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund, filed this month for an initial public offering.
Side generates revenue by taking a commission on each transaction, said co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Guy Gal. He said that he views rivals such as Coldwell Banker as the old business model, while Side’s approach is more appealing to top-performing agents. The average annual sales volume is $45 million for Side partners, Gal said.
Side helps free entrepreneurs to own their businesses “instead of having to manage paperwork,” said Rahul Kishore, a senior managing director at Coatue.
The company plans to use the funding to expand to new regions, beyond its current markets in California, Texas and Florida.
(Updates with additional comment in fourth paragraph)
