Warsaw, Poland-based SonarHome is a realtech startup that aims to change how people sell and buy homes by introducing the iBuying service to the Polish real estate market. It allows users to quickly and safely sell an apartment in a few days.
In a recent development, the company announced that it has raised €5.6M in an equity and debt round of funding.
“Selling an apartment doesn’t have to be difficult”
Selling and buying an apartment on the secondary market is very complicated and stressful. One has to expect weeks of waiting for the right offer. And this is where SonarHome steps in with an aim to simplify this process.
Founded in 2018 by Mateusz Romanowski, SonarHome is an end-to-end residential real estate marketplace operating in Central and Eastern Europe. It provides homeowners with free valuation and analytical services in Warsaw and more than 50 other Polish cities.
The company’s key business lines are a “cash offers” iBuying business, as well as digital-prime broker services that help homeowners find buyers on the open market. SonarHome claims it is the first company in Poland to offer the iBuying service, which allows you to quickly and safely sell an apartment directly to iBuyer.
SonarHome uses technology to estimate the value of the property, then purchases it and immediately pays the seller in cash. iBuying simplifies and shortens the apartment sale process, which takes only a few days instead of several months, claims the company.
The goal of SonarHome is also to educate the market and provide data on current real estate prices. On the sonarhome.pl website, a map of housing prices for a given location is available. Currently, the user can check the prices of flats at the level of the city, district, housing estate or a specific street.
Mateusz Romanowski, CEO & co-founder of SonarHome, says, “Real estate markets in Central Europe have been going through rapid changes, but it is still difficult for homeowners to sell their properties on the secondary market. Sellers often don’t even know the real value of their real estate. We want to level the playing field and make the whole process easier.”
Explaining about the company, Romanowski adds, “SonarHome empowers homeowners with a free home value estimator, helps them to find the buyer on the free market, and in some cases even buys their properties for cash, at fair market prices.”
SonarHome reports that it has been gathering and analysing data about real estate offers and transactions in Poland since 2017, and has also been offering homeowners in Warsaw its iBuying service since 2019. To date, the company has participated in over 160 transactions.
Investors
The round was led by European VC fund Market One Capital. Besides Market One Capital, the round also saw participation from Kogito Ventures; business angels associated with the real estate industry, including former REA Group Chief Product Officer Andrew Rechtman; Philipp Schomberg from Kingstone Capital; tech entrepreneurs and veteran investors, including Michał Borkowski (co-founder of Brainly); Maciej Noga (co-founder of Pracuj.pl); Marek Cygan (co-founder of Nomagic.ai); and Chris Guzowski (Polipo Ventures).
How will the funds be used?
With the recent funding, SonarHome aims to further develop its automated real-estate valuation technology (utilising AI and Machine Learning), increase the scale of its iBuying and digital brokerage operations and expand to other cities in Central Europe, including Budapest, Bucharest, Bratislava, and Prague.
In addition to that, the company also looks to strengthen its team, hiring automation specialists, BI analysts, developers, and real estate industry professionals.