Doma, a US-based real estate technology provider backed by risk management technology producer Assurant, property developer Lennar and reinsurance providers Scor and HSCM Bermuda, agreed a reverse takeover on Tuesday.
The deal will involve Doma merging with special purpose acquisition company Capitol Investment Corp V following the latter’s flotation on the New York Stock Exchange in a $300m initial public offering in December 2020, at an enterprise valuation of $3bn.
The transaction will be boosted by $300m in private investment in public equity (PIPE) financing from investors including Lennar and SB Management, a subsidiary of telecommunications conglomerate SoftBank.
Investment and financial services group Fidelity is also taking part in the PIPE, as are Gores Group, Hedosophia, Wells Capital, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, and Spencer Rascoff, co-founder and former CEO of real estate listings platform Zillow.
Founded in 2016 and formerly known as States Title, Doma provides machine intelligence-equipped technology that streamlines the real estate transaction process. Its shareholders will own at least 80% of the merged company.
The company had secured $10.6m in funding in 2016 according to a securities filing, adding $240m in equity and warrant financing from unnamed investors in January 2019, $25m in series B funding from unnamed investors in June that year and $45.9m six months later, according to other filings.
Greenspring Associates led a $123m series C round for Doma in May 2020 backed by Lennar subsidiary Lennar Ventures, Assurant and reinsurance providers Scor’s Global P&C Ventures unit, HSCM Bermuda, Horizons Ventures, Eminence Capital, Foundation Capital and Fifth Wall Ventures.
Max Simkoff, Doma’s founder and chief executive, said:“I founded Doma to remove friction and frustration from home-buying and to make closing on a home as simple and efficient as booking a ride or ordering a meal.
“In 2020, adoption and usage of our core product exceeded our expectations. We pushed hard against our product and operational expansion road map and this accelerated momentum is helping remove friction from the home buying and refinancing experience.
“Right now, our patented machine intelligence technology reduces title processing time from five days to as little as one minute – our goal is that the entire mortgage closing process move from a 50-plus day ordeal to less than a week.”
