Helsinki-headquartered real estate platform Rive has collected over €23 million in a Series A funding round led by IDC Ventures. The startup’s existing investors also joined the round. Rive provides an integrated real estate service platform powered by artificial intelligence to make buying and selling homes simpler. The latest capital injection will pave the way for the startup to enhance its services, scale up its platform. This will be also used to further international growth, with the rebrand being central to Rive’s M&A strategy.
Rive was founded in 2017 as iBuyer Kodit.io to help modern people change their lives and properties, to make their move in the housing market. To date, Rive acquired four real estate agencies and two rent-to-own platforms, grow 5x Year-over-Year, and sell over €300M worth of real estate annually. The firm currently has operations in Finland, Spain, and Poland.
“We are very excited to partner with IDC Ventures to help us in our ambition to radically improve the consumer experience in the housing market and help millions of people to change their lives and properties,” says Kalle Salmi, founder and CEO of Rive. “With this fresh funding and a new brand, we are ready to accelerate organic and inorganic growth in Europe”.
Rive’s end-to-end platform brings simplicity to switching homes by providing liquidity to sellers and fully renovated, move-in-ready homes for buyers, while providing real estate agents with a unique combination of tech tools and products to give superior service to their customers. As a result, Rive’s customers get everything they need for a successful real estate transaction, from cutting-edge real-time market insights to instant cash offers and renovation services delivered by local real estate professionals who guide them at every step.
Meanwhile, Europe’s real estate market may be facing its biggest crisis in a decade. For consumers, analysis shows that higher interest rates and increased inflation will create financial pressure on lower-income and over-indebted households.
“During times of economic uncertainty and declining housing prices, our ability to provide liquidity and reaI-time understanding of the market becomes crucial. There is a rapidly increasing demand for our services, and we are dedicated to making a positive impact in the housing market one transaction at a time,” Salmi continues.
Two of metropolitan Europe’s most critical housing problems are access to ownership and carbon emissions related to building new real estate. Rive helps society breach the gap in unequal wealth distribution by providing novel home ownership solutions. For example, Rive’s rent-to-own solution, which already has over 30,000 potential homebuyers registered, offers them a chance to rent their dream home while saving money for the down payment. Additionally, by renovating existing apartments to modern standards, Rive significantly reduces the negative impact of new buildings, and improves the energy efficiency of the existing building stock.
“Rive is at the forefront of changing how people buy and sell homes,” says Bobby Aitkenhead from IDC Ventures. “Our team has been following the proptech sector for years, and immediately recognised that Rive is a game-changer. With a market-leading services platform, innovative business model, and rapidly growing team of professionals, Rive delivers radically different customer experience in the housing market.”
