San Francisco-based real estate technology company Side announced Tuesday that it raised $50 million in fresh financing. The latest investment comes just three months after the company closed on a $150 million Series D. At the time, Side secured its status as a unicorn with a $1 billion valuation. Now the company’s valuation has more than doubled to $2.5 billion.
The raise follows what has been an outstanding year of growth for the company. Side has experienced a 200 percent year-over-over increase in home sales across its three markets. The company currently operates in California, Texas and Florida.
Side aims to reinvent the traditional brokerage model by partnering with real estate agents to create boutique brands that will better serve their local markets. The company grants agents and their teams the power to gain ownership of their brand without operating as a full-scale brokerage.
Once an agent gets their brand up and running, Side covers all of the messy back-end stuff required to run an agency. The real estate tech platform takes care of everything from marketing and advertising to listing coordination, legal docs, insurance and more.
The company will use the additional capital to rev up its expansion efforts as it prepares to enter 15 new states by the end of 2021. Side expects to close over $20 billion in home sales by that time as well. All of the expansion plans will set the stage for a future IPO, according to the company.
As Side continues its mad dash to go public, the company is racing to hire new team members that will help it keep up the pace. The real estate tech platform is now hiring for over 50 open tech positions across departments.
Side has brought in over $250 million in venture capital financing to date, according to the company.
The raise was led by Tiger Global Management with participation from ICONIQ Capital and D1 Capital Partners, among others.
