Press
New York, NY – August 4, 2021 – Localize, a pioneer in AI-powered real estate technologies, today announced a $25 million Series C financing round led by Pitango Growth, with additional participation from Mizrahi-Tefahot and existing investors. Company funding to date totals $70 million. Chemi Peres, Managing Partner and Co-founder of Pitango, is joining Localize’s Board of Directors.
Homebuying is often the single largest financial decision people make. However, many people make this purchase with little transparency into the overall buying process, as well as limited information on specifics of the home, building and neighborhood they are considering. This lack of information has resulted in 40 percent of homebuyers reporting some level of regret with their completed home purchase. Additionally, many real estate brokers find it time consuming and costly to help buyers in a personalized way, leading to brokers losing meaningful leads during the process.
Localize has developed a data and AI-driven platform, combined with human expertise, to assist buyers and brokers in remedying their existing pain points related to the real estate market. Localize works by collating information from billions of data points into hundreds of selectable attributes, including proximity to popular stores – for example, Trader Joe’s, future construction, high ceilings, building violations, complaints and pests, and a proprietary natural light insight. Homebuyers can easily tailor their searches with these attributes through a homebuying advisor called Hunter, the company’s hybrid human-AI concierge service. This service enables buyers to tap into Localize’s robust data by receiving personalized, daily curated listings that are further refined based on user responses to suggested listings.
“The homebuying process is complex and the real estate industry as a whole has been slow to embrace technological change to address these issues. Most of the data available in the market today is too fragmented for buyers to effectively use,” said Omer Granot, President and COO of Localize. “We have developed products that are shifting the paradigm to empower prospective buyers and brokers to really fill in those information gaps and receive the assistance they need throughout the entire process, making us a partner from their initial search to receiving keys in hand for their new home. We’re excited to have secured this funding from our investors who believe in what we’re building and are helping us grow into the premier comprehensive real estate technology platform in the market.”
In addition to helping homebuyers navigate the often complex stages of purchasing a home, Hunter also solves a unique challenge that brokers face: while brokers continuously work to find leads, these potential homebuyers are often at varying stages in the buying process and need personalized service. For many brokers, this is often too costly and time consuming, resulting in lost leads. Hunter serves as a virtual assistant for brokers that helps qualify leads by cultivating lead lists and then reintroducing the leads back to agents when buyers are ready to see properties in person.
“Buying a home is one of the most important financial and life decisions many people make,” said Chemi Peres, founding partner of Pitango, who is joining the Localize board. “Localize enables people to find and buy the house of their dreams in a short time, using the advanced AI tools it developed. The ability to use tools that automate and digitalize this process, combined with insights that are produced using algorithms which run on massive amounts of data, makes the results quick, accurate, and fully fitted to the client’s needs.”
In addition to successfully closing the funding round, Localize has shown record growth in the NYC marketplace despite the impact of the pandemic on the real estate industry there. The newly raised funds will be directed toward the further development of its existing services, as well as the creation of complementary services to support the Localize ecosystem. Funding will also be used to support R&D and further develop the company’s sales and marketing operations.
Localize, which now serves New York City, was founded in Israel in 2012 and has 130 employees. It is managed by CEO and founder Asaf Rubin, alumni of the Technion excellence program, COO and President Omer Granot, alumni of the MIT Sloan School of Management MBA track, and CTO Ilan Fraiman. Localize is revolutionizing the real estate industry by harnessing the power of AI and cutting-edge technology. For buyers, Localize democratizes data and streamlines the house-hunting journey to find a place they’ll love long after moving day. For agents, Localize cultivates leads and reintroduces them as qualified buyers at exactly the right time. Together, the company mission is to make homebuying better for everyone. The management team brings deep experience in developing and leading some of the most prominent high tech companies, including the development of Taboola’s recommendation engine (Rubin), as the New York General Manager and Global VP of Growth for the ride-sharing giant Via (Granot), and heading the research and development activities of Trusteer (Fraiman).
