Year-to-date investment in real estate technology through Q2 2021 was already 82% of full-year 2020 levels:
• Mortgage technology was the clear funding category leader, representing 55% of total funding, led by a secondary market investment in Better of $500M to buy back shares and Blend’s $300M Series G round of funding.
• Residential category funding was 42% of the total investment, led by Homeward’s $371M raise of debt and Series B funding and brokerage platform Side’s $200M Series D funding.
The strong year-to-date M&A activity through Q2 2021 had a significant concentration in the residential category:
• There were several residential strategic acquisitions such as Zillow Group/ShowingTime, Constellation Real Estate/Top Producer, LoneWolf Technologies/LionDesk, and HomeSpotter as well as BoomTown/Brokermint.
• The noteworthy acquisition of CoreLogic by Stone Point Capital and Insight Partners was also completed.
Special Purpose Acquisition Vehicle (SPAC) activity also continued to progress in Q1 and Q2, with Matterport, Offerpad, and Better merger announcements.