Side, a real estate technology company that partners with agents, teams, and independent brokerages to transform them into businesses, announced a $150 million Series D funding round led by Coatue Management.
This latest round of financing establishes Side as one of the only real estate companies to achieve unicorn status and a $1 billion valuation.
Founded in 2017, Side as become the fastest real estate company to reach the $1 billion valuation milestone, doing so in just four years.
Side, a MetaProp portfolio company, has raised over $200 million in funding, which includes support from leading venture capital firms including Matrix Partners, Trinity Ventures, and Sapphire Ventures.
Side’s new funding round will support hiring to expand the platform and accelerate the company’s national expansion efforts beyond its three operating markets of California, Texas, and Florida.
Top-producing agents, teams, and independent brokerages from around the country will be able to partner with Side, and gain full ownership of their own boutique brand and business without having to operate as a brokerage.
“Today’s top-producing real estate professionals are underserved and underappreciated by the existing brokerage models,” said Guy Gal, Side co-founder and chief executive officer.
“The incentives between brokerages and top agents and teams are misaligned. Existing brokerages are designed to support average agents, so they put all of the heavy lifting, cost, time, and risk of operations and growth on top-producing agents who want to focus their time on expertly serving their clients. Side was purposefully designed to enable top agents, teams, and independent brokerages to fulfill their aspiration and potential.”
Side’s brokerage model challenges the “big brand” status quo by exclusively marketing the agent’s boutique brand and business to clients, while acting as their brokerage, technology, and support partner. Developed by industry professionals and world-class engineers, Side operates the brokerage platform on the backend while providing a technology stack to help partner agents predictably grow their businesses, while continuing to provide excellent service to their clients.
“Side shifts value, time, and equity from existing brokerages to the top agents and teams who actually create the value in the first place,” said Gal.
“The future of real estate is here, and with this financing, we are excited to continue partnering with and being of service to more of the world’s best real estate professionals.”
