Softbank Leads $400 Million Investment in Compass

Japanese telecommunication company SoftBank Group Corporation has led a $400 million investment round in New York-based real estate startup Compass, the company announced Thursday. The company announced its sixth funding round was raised according to a $4.4 million valuation. Fidelity Investments Inc., IVP, Wellington Management Company, and QIA also participated in the round.

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Softbank led an earlier, $500 million investment round in Compass in December 2017, which was raised according to a $2.2 billion valuation. Compass has raised a total of $1.2 billion to date.

Founded in 2012 by Robert Reffkin and Israeli entrepreneur Ori Allon, Compass operates a digital portal for buying, selling, and renting real estate. Compass operates in cities across the U.S. including New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, Boston, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Dallas, Philadelphia, and Miami. Compass had said on multiple occasions that it intends to operate in all top 20 cities in the U.S. In July, Compass acquired San Francisco-based brokerage firm Paragon Real Estate Group for an undisclosed amount. In August, Compass acquired another San Francisco-based company, luxury real estate company Pacific Union International Inc., not disclosing the amount. At the time of the deal, Pacific Union was ranked the fifth-largest brokerage firm in the U.S. and the largest independent brokerage firm in California by sales volume, having reported sales volume of $14 billion in 2017.

Compass reported it had tripled the number of agents working with its platform to 7,000 in 2018 and launched activity in new U.S. cities including San Diego, Seattle, Philadelphia, and Atlanta. The company said it expects to reach $34 billion in sales in 2018, more than double its 2017 sales, which totaled $14.8.