Venture Capital

Awning Emerges From Stealth With $9.3 Million

SAN FRANCISCO — Awning, a technology platform and brokerage built exclusively for real estate investing, has emerged from stealth with $9.3 million in funding led by Global Founders Capital. The round also includes participation from MassMutual Ventures and several strategic angel investors including Side co-founders Guy Gal and Ed Wu, SafeGraph founder Auren Hoffman, Scale founder Lucy Guo, Opendoor’s Former VP of Analytics Peter Fishman, Lightspeed Ventures Partner Justin Overdorff, and other Silicon Valley executives.

With owners of single-family rental homes seeing 12-20% annualized returns over the last 20 years, the opportunity to buy a home as an investment and rent it can rival more traditional financial instruments and provide recurring cash flow.  But most local real estate agents do not specialize in investment properties and they lack the tools to find the right opportunities and access critical financial data like OpEx & Cap Rates.

Awning uses machine learning and data analytics to surface the best single-family rental properties for investors in popular markets across the country, with estimated monthly rental income and long-term ROI. Each Awning customer is paired with one of Awning’s full-time agents who acts as an advisor to determine their investment strategy, review properties that meet their requirements, and close deals quickly and confidently. Awning can also help investors secure financing and connect buyers with vetted property managers to oversee their properties and manage rentals and day-to-day maintenance.

“Investing in single-family rental properties has become one of the best ways for individuals to control their financial future, but there are few resources designed to help individual investors, ” said Shri Ganeshram, CEO and co-founder of Awning. “Especially as individual rental real estate markets become more competitive, first-time investors need more help getting started. Our analytics and advisory services provide detailed information about rental income, taxes, expected repairs, cap rates, and more. Our goal is to give novice and experienced investors alike the opportunity to build long-term financial security by investing in single-family rental properties.”

Since opening in beta at the end of May this year, Awning has helped individuals living across the country purchase nearly $5 million in real estate. The Awning web portal is open to investors from across the United States and Canada and currently connects buyers with listings in California and Texas, with Florida coming soon. Awning will continue to add inventory in new markets in the coming months.