Real Estate Startup Reali Closes Shop After 6 Years
By Mark Hallum August 26, 2022 12:31 pm
reprints
In the words of Katy Perry, it’s never really over—except for real estate startup Reali.
Reali, which aimed to be a single stop to buy and sell a home online, announced on Wednesday that it had been the victim of economic decline and will shutter, six years after its founding and a year after raising $250 million in Series B funding.
As a result of growing debt and a hemorrhaging housing market, Reali CEO Tyler Baldwin told employees that most would be calling it a day for the last time on Sept. 9. with only a small staff remaining to close out any remaining transactions.
“We had an incredible six-year run delighting homeowners,” Baldwin said in a statement. “We want to extend our deepest gratitude to the thousands of homeowners who trusted Reali with their homeownership journeys, the Reali team, our investors, and those who rooted for us from the sidelines. It has been a pleasure to serve our communities.”
Citing a “challenging real estate and financial market conditions and unfavorable capital-raising environment,” Reali is selling what remains of the business for parts, including mortgage origination, title and escrow and power buying facets..
Founded by Ami Avrahami and Amit Heller in Israel in 2016, the majority of the company’s employees were located in the U.S. with an office in San Mateo, Calif. Reali offered a medium for buying and selling homes online.Reali also offered services such as arranging all-cash offers on homes for clients and providing loan services.
In 2021, the company was touting more than seven times year-over-year growth, double year-over-year customer growth and triple the average revenue per user from the previous year. Zeev Ventures, which led the $250 million fundraising effort, could not be reached for comment.
Just eight months ago, the company acquired TXR Homes in order to target the San Diego market deemed critical to its Southern California growth strategy. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
While it looked like Reali was living the California dream, it racked up $290 million in debt since its foundation, according to Crunchbase.
Reali could not be reached for comment.
Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.
