As a longtime property designer based in Chile, Benjamin Labra had the ability to find gaps in the buying and leasing markets in Latin America. To meet demands, he started Houm, an all-in-one platform that assists homeowners rent and offer their homes in the region.
Fresh out of Y Combinator’s W21 friend, today Houm announced an $8 million seed round.
If you believe the idea seems like Brazil’s unicorn, QuintoAndar, it’s since Houm is really similar. While QuintoAndar controls the Brazilian market, Houm runs in Chile, Mexico and Colombia, and intends to catch the rest of Spanish-speaking LatAm.
Think about Houm as a homeowner-run Zillow satisfies TaskRabbit. The company uses a marketplace run by the property owners themselves and eliminates the real estate agent by using 200 freelancers who prepare the property for sale or to handle it.
Houmers, as they are called, go to the owner’s home, take photos and then help possible buyers or renters view the residential or commercial property. For their work, Houmers are compensated each time a home they worked on gets or sells rented.
Houm’s selling proposition isn’t simply the ease of use it offers; instead, it also serves as a guarantor in my methods, making the buying process more accessible.
“In Colombia and Mexico, for somebody to be your guarantor, they have to have a property that’s without home mortgage so it can be utilized as collateral,” Labra informed TechCrunch.
On the flip side, the company also ensures that occupants will make money monthly, and if a renter falters, Houm covers the expense. “You truly have absolutely nothing to lose if you use Houm,” Labra stated.
You can imagine that a business like Houm now has all sorts of information on the property market, particularly around sales and rental costs. As a result, Houm uses this data in an algorithm that helps the house owner figure out a fair cost for their property, but the market price remains approximately the owner.
The business, which was established in 2018 and is based in Chile, now has about 200 full-time staff members, in addition to their freelance group. While Labra decreased to state how many active users it has, he stated Houm is now revealing a home every eight minutes.
The existing financing round had no lead financier however includes Y Combinator, Goodwater Ventures, OneVC, Vast VC, Liquid2 and Myelin. The business prepares to utilize the cash to expand within the region, perfect its algorithm and normally speed up growth.
Article curated by RJ Shara from Source. RJ Shara is a Bay Area Radio Host (Radio Jockey) who talks about the startup ecosystem – entrepreneurs, investments, policies and more on her show The Silicon Dreams. The show streams on Radio Zindagi 1170AM on Mondays from 3.30 PM to 4 PM.
Recent Comments