December 21, 2020
Even before Opendoor’s official stock market debut on Dec. 21, the iBuyer’s valuation soared to nearly $18 billion as Wall Street investors cheered its merger with a special purpose acquisition company. The company, founded in 2014, uses an algorithm to buy and sell homes for a fee of between 6 and 8 percent. It is the leading iBuyer, or instant home buyer, in a hot — but nascent — slice of the residential market, accounting for just 0.5 percent of U.S. home sales last year. Prior to the SPAC deal, Opendoor raised $1.3 billion from investors including SoftBank, Khosla Ventures, Lennar, General Atlantic and Access Technology Ventures.