
Eric Wu, CEO of OpenDoor, speaks at a convention in 2018. (Picture by David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)
Opendoor, a web based platform that lets owners rapidly promote their homes, introduced on Tuesday that it’ll go public via a merger with Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings II, a shell firm helmed by Chamath Palihapitiya, a enterprise capitalist and early Fb government.
The deal values Opendoor at an enterprise worth of $4.8 billion, and can generate as much as $1 billion in money proceeds, the corporate says. Palihapitiya himself is placing $100 million into the enterprise.
“We based Opendoor to make it easy and immediate to purchase and promote a house,” Opendoor’s founder and CEO, Eric Wu, stated in a press release. “That is one in all many milestones in the direction of our mission.”
Founded in 2014, Opendoor is the dominant participant within the “iBuying” house, a time period for start-ups that allow owners quickly promote their properties to the corporate, which then lists it on its platform—taking a reduce from either side of the transaction. Opendoor makes use of information evaluation to find out its pricing, a central component of its marketing strategy; if it overpays for a house upfront, it may take a loss. If it tries to underpay, sellers will look elsewhere.
The agency’s valuation has soared in recent times—it was most just lately pegged at $3.8 billion in 2019—helped alongside by a $400 million infusion from SoftBank in 2018.
Opendoor generated $4.7 billion in income final yr on 18,000 residence gross sales throughout 21 markets. Nonetheless, the corporate is working at a considerable loss. In April, it laid off a 3rd of its staff.
Opendoor additionally faces elevated competitors, from Zillow
Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings II was fashioned earlier this yr as a blank-check agency—also referred to as a particular goal acquisition firm, or SPAC. In easy phrases, it went public as a shell firm, then scouted the marketplace for a gorgeous tech start-up with which to merge.
Final yr, Social Capital Hedosophia’s first SPAC helped take public Richard Branson’s rocket firm, Virgin Galactic
Thus far, the market is reacting positively to its second main deal, with Opendoor. As of 9:50 am japanese time on Tuesday, the SPAC’s inventory is up 16%.