Here’s the official announcement, but the WSJ said that bringing in Dragoneer probably means that the IPO is getting close:
On Tuesday, Compass announced its $370 million Series G round of fundraising at a valuation of $6.4 billion — a 45% increase in valuation in 10 months. This brings its total capital raised to more than $1.5 billion.
New and returning investors cited Compass’ consistent growth, proven scale across the largest real estate markets, and proprietary technology as the key reasons why they invested. They view Compass as uniquely positioned to build a real estate platform that makes the search and selling experience intelligent and seamless to deliver superior results for you, the Compass client.
This round of financing positions Compass to:
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Fuel our technology investments and advancements, including hiring additional Product & Engineering talent and accelerate software development, such as our upcoming launch of a revamped consumer search experience, which will help me get the best offer for your home.
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Further invest in programs like Compass Concierge, which empowers home sellers to sell their home faster and for more money by fronting the cost of home improvement services like staging, painting and more, which will help sell your home faster and for a better price.
This investment brings us steps closer to realizing our mission to help everyone find their place in the world, and I am excited for this next chapter!
FAQs
Q: Why did Compass decide to raise more capital?
A: Funding from investors makes it possible to invest in our proprietary technology to create a next generation platform for home transactions and ownership, and also to support other programs such as Compass Concierge, which help us empower our agents and grow the company.
As with past rounds, the decision to fundraise was not made due to lack of capital. We will use this funding to drive investment in industry innovations that attract both sellers and buyers to the Compass platform, delivering superior results that, in turn, empower our agents to grow their business.
Q: Who are the investors?
A: Participating investors include a select group of longstanding partners and new investors including Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), Dragoneer Investment Group, Softbank Vision Fund and Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), among others.
Q: Why did investors decide to invest?
A: New and returning investors cited Compass’s consistent growth, proven scale across the largest real estate markets, and proprietary technology as key drivers of their investment. They view Compass as uniquely positioned to build a modern real estate platform making the search and selling experience intelligent and seamless to deliver superior results for buyers, sellers and their agents.
San Francisco-based Dragoneer has a record of late-stage venture-capital investments that often precede IPOs. For example, the firm led rounds for companies such as Slack and Uber in the run-up to their public offerings.
A person familiar with Compass’s plans said Dragoneer’s involvement in the recent round is a sign the brokerage firm is considering a public offering in the near term. A spokesman for Dragoneer declined to comment. Compass Chief Executive Robert Reffkin declined an interview request.
Why further dilute the existing shareholders if the capital was not needed? Obviously it was needed to expand these programs.
The only thing I could imagine is to have a wider base of investors with clout to impress IPO people?
I think their original fundings has quite the list of investor groups. I would agree the IPO seems sooner than later but the capital taken in per share on an IPO will be more than this funding so it is curious why they did it now. Can’t wait to see that S1 registration statement.
Late funding is a way to establish enterprise worth and (hopefully) increase IPO valuations. It also makes it easier to attract lower fees executing the IPO.