QuintoAndar ends Series D round with $250M, becoming Brazil's new unicorn

QuintoAndar, a property startup from Sao Paulo, raised $250 million in a Series D round, an amount considered to be incredibly impressive by US standards, but even more so in Brazil.

The round takes the company “to unicorn status,” according to CEO Gabriel Braga, although he would not disclose its exact valuation.

SoftBank Group International led the round, which also included participation from another new investor Dragoneer as well as existing backers General Atlantic and Kaszek Ventures. The financing brings the six-year-old company’s total raised to over $335 million, according to its Crunchbase profile, and comes just nine months after its $70 million Series C.

“QuintoAndar makes it easier for people to quickly find homes and for landlords to better manage their properties,” said Marcelo Claure, CEO of SoftBank Group International, in a prepared statement. “The company is at the center of a global transformation of the real estate industry.”

QuintoAndar describes itself as an “end-to-end solution for long-term rentals” that, among other things, connects potential tenants to landlords and vice versa. It’s seen impressive growth in recent years. I spoke with CEO Gabriel Braga by telephone and he told me that the company has increased the number of rentals it helped facilitate by five times year-over-year. QuintoAndar also saw its revenue surge by more than three times last year, according to Braga. (It keeps the first month’s rent and a percentage fee of the transactions it helps facilitate.) The company has also more than tripled its number of employees to 1,000 compared to about 300-350 a year ago. On average, it has been closing over 4,500 new contracts per month.

Ultimately, its goal is to provide “a seamless experience for tenants that removes the need for a guarantor, large security deposit, or rental insurance while also providing landlords the best liquidity in the market and fully guaranteed rent.”

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