Perch, now Orchard, raises $35M in Series B funding round

The Series B funding round was led by venture capital firm, Navitas Capital.

As the iBuying craze grips the residential real estate industry, a startup that says it does that and more has secured $36 million in funding.

New York-based Perch said that it had secured the equity injection from a group of investors led by Navitas Capital. The firm, which rebranded itself as Orchard, provides a service that allows homeowners to buy a new home before they sell their own, and guarantees to purchase the property if it fails to sell.

Orchard’s CEO and Co-Founder, Court Cunningham, described the firm’s product as a vertically integrated model, to streamline the entire home buying and selling process. Among the features on its online portal is a search function that uses artificial intelligence to suggest properties to customers based on the images they view. It also provides a title service that allows transaction paperwork to be filed online.

The firm offers to purchase a customer’s home for a fee if the home is not sold within 90 days of being listed on its online portal. Cunningham said in an interview that 85 percent of owners sell their homes at market price before the deadline.

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