The Canadian proptech landscape continues to expand, as Properly, a rapidly-growing online brokerage known for its sale assurance model, receives another hefty round of funding from investors.
The Calgary-originated tech startup, which has since expanded into the Greater Toronto Area and Vancouver markets, is announcing a $36M CAD financing round. The raise, which brings the brokerage’s total funding to $192M CAD -- making it the best-funded and fastest growing real estate startup in Canada -- closed in late July. It was led by Properly’s existing partners including Parker89, Bain Capital Ventures, Prudence, and FJ Labs, among others.
Anshul Ruparell, Properly’s co-founder and CEO, tells STOREYS that the company’s rapid growth in the real estate space -- even as the industry enters a down market -- has greatly encouraged investors, and has been key in bringing this most recent round to fruition.
“The raise is largely made possible because we’ve achieved exponential growth since the last round of financing just over a year ago, which inspired confidence in our investors after leading the transformation of the Canadian real estate industry,” he says.
“Our business and team have grown exponentially, we’ve expanded into new markets -- we’re growing at a much faster rate in the GTA and the Vancouver market -- and we’ve expanded our service offerings to make the real estate experience a lot more seamless, primarily by using an in-house mortgage offering.”
This financing follows a $100M CAD credit facility financing, which has bolstered Properly’s ability to provide its sale assurance service -- the guarantee a seller client’s home will either sell, or the company will buy it -- as well as a $44M CAD Series B financing.
Ruparell says this service has been especially popular as the Canadian housing market has slowed. Sales have plunged in recent months in the nation’s largest urban markets, down 47% in the GTA and 43% in Metro Vancouver, with prices starting to follow suit.
“We’ll be continuing to build resilient real estate solutions that Canadians need to navigate increasingly uncertain markets,” he says. “So things like sales assurance and skip the showings have offered peace of mind and certainty for customers in an uncertain environment, and we’re building up on these offerings to improve even more of the real estate experience.”
The brokerage is also investing robustly in its technology offerings to expand its products and services, such as the creation of their in-house mortgage brokerage, which launched in 2021, new iOS and Android apps, as well as an expansion of their mortgage assessment and evaluation tools.
According to a release, the company’s recent expansion into the Toronto and Vancouver markets positions it to acquire 50% of market share of the total Canadian real estate market.”
“We’ve been impressed with what Properly has been able to accomplish since its last fundraising round as they’ve proven they understand the needs of Canadian home buyers and sellers and can build offerings that are not only resilient in uncertain markets but are extremely beneficial for the customer,” says Merritt Hummer, Partner at Bain Capital Ventures. “We were eager to continue our support and expand our investment in the company as they continue to be uniquely positioned to lead the transformation of the real estate category in Canada.”
