Real estate tech startups serving homebuyers are struggling as loan interest rates, inflation rise, and inventory shortages persist in many markets.
Reali is the latest victim in the space, having revealed that it has commenced a closure and will lay off the majority of its personnel on September 9.
In a press statement, co-founder and chairman Amit Haller stated that the decision was made due to “difficult real estate and financial market conditions and an unattractive capital-raising climate.
“Reali was one of the pioneering companies to offer the ‘buy before you sell’ and ‘cash offer’ programs to homeowners,” he said in the release. “We believed deeply in benefiting the consumer foremost in every transaction.”
Amit Haller and Ami Avrahami started Reali in Israel in 2016 after becoming dissatisfied with the quality of service offered by agents and the excessive charges they charged.
Their purpose was to make “the buying and selling of real estate more transparent, honest, and professional.”
The company noted that customers could buy and sell in one coordinated transaction, “eliminating resale contingencies, moving twice, and paying two mortgages at once.”
According to Crunchbase, the company has raised more than $290 million in debt and equity capital since its founding. Its most recent funding round was a $100 million Series B headed by Zeev Ventures, with participation from Akkadian Ventures, Signia Ventures, and others in August 2021. At the time of that raise, the company was reported to have 180 employees, according to CTECH by Calcalist. The same publication reported this week that Reali had 140 employees.
Reali stated in its press release that “a small team of employees” will continue to service active real estate transactions until the end of the year.
The company also stated that it is in talks with companies interested in purchasing specific sections of its business, such as mortgage origination, title and escrow, and power buying.
Haller and Avrahami also co-founded Veev, a real estate developer turned tech-enabled homebuilder that received $400 million in a Series D round in March, catapulting the company to “unicorn” status.
Reali is not the only company facing these difficulties. Homeward just let go of 20% of its employees. Better.com, which has been plagued by a slew of other problems, has laid off thousands this year.
