London startup Nested raises a wee bit of money to buy your home and skim from the sale
Just ask anyone, anywhere, ever, and they'll tell you: Buying and selling homes is a risky business. But help's supposedly on the way, in the form of yet another attempt at disrupting a business ostensibly in desperate need of a paradigm shift.
At least, if you ask the people behind the startup.
That's what the people at Nested, a London-based endeavor, are thinking. Nested guarantees it'll sell your house within 90 days (at 95 to 98 percent of market value), or offer you a cash advance against the sale. Now, it's raised €8 million euro ($8.6 million USD) to do so, bringing its total funding to €11 million, TechCrunch reported.
TechCrunch compares Nested's basic operational purview as that of a real estate agent, enhanced by technology.
What's in it for Nested? If they score a higher sale price than what's agreed upon, it'll take 30 percent of the difference, and give the rest to the property owner.
Again, it's a lot of risk, and Nested is far from the only player. Opendoor, a startup with a similar mission (but based in San Francisco) raised $210 million in a Series D round in November. That brings its total funding up to $320 million.
But Nested and its founders remain confident. They've helped five sellers a month so far. Their next goals, according to TechCrunch, are to hit 100 deals per month, and not too long after that, 1,000 per month.
Kerry Flynn is a business reporter for Mashable covering the tech industry. She previously reported on social media companies, mobile apps and startups for International Business Times. She has also written for The Huffington Post, Forbes and Money magazine. Kerry studied environmental science and economics at Harvard College, where she led The Harvard Crimson's metro news and design teams and played mellophone in the Band. When not listening to startup pitches, she runs half-marathons, plays with puppies and pretends to like craft beer.
