Orchard, the US-based developer of an online real estate platform, secured $100m yesterday in a series D round that featured insurance firm First American, taking its valuation to over $1bn.
Venture capital firm Accomplice led the round and was joined by returning investors FirstMark, Revolution, Juxtapose and a syndicate of unnamed newcomers, taking its total equity funding to $255m.
Orchard’s platform allows homeowners to buy and move into new houses before selling their old property, and it has expanded its services to include home loans, escrow services and insurance since it was founded in 2017.
Following a year of threefold growth and a doubling of both its geographical footprint and its employee base, the newly-minted unicorn will use the funding to launch new services and expand into four new markets in 2022.
Revolution Growth led the company’s $69m series C round, in September 2020, which was filled out by FirstMark, Navitas, Accomplice and Juxtapose.
Navitas had led the $36m second tranche of a $56m series B round in January 2020 that included FirstMark, Accomplice and Juxtapose, which had combined to invest $20m in April 2019 alongside $200m in debt financing from an unnamed lender.
FirstMark had previously led a $30m series A round for Orchard, which was then still known as Perch, in 2018, investing together with Juxtapose and Accomplice.
Court Cunningham, co-founder and chief executive of Orchard, said: “We are proud to have built a business that gives the consumer unparalleled convenience, certainty and control when buying a home.
“We have had a year of hyper growth, but at Orchard it is still day one for transforming residential real estate in favour of the customer.
“This funding will allow Orchard to continue to innovate for our customers and expand geographically to offer our services to millions more homeowners across the country.”
