Vietnamese Financing Platform Homebase Secures $30M in Financing

The Vietnamese home financing platform Homebase has landed $30 million in equity and debt financing to continue its mission to make homeownership more accessible.

The latest round of investment comes almost a year after the company raised a seven-figure sum from the likes of Class 5 Global, Pegasus Technology Ventures as well as Singapore-based 1982 Ventures.

Investors in the latest round included many existing investors as well as some notable individuals such as Brian Ma (co-founder of Divvy Homes), Troy Steckenrider III (ex-COO of Zerodown), and Darius Cheung (founder of 99.co) as well as money from prominent US companies including leading iBuyer Opendoor personal finance company SoFi and Microsoft among others.

Homebase's business model addresses the burgeoning aspirational Vietnamese middle-class, members of which are increasingly having difficulty saving for property down-payments in a market where the prices have been rising steadily for some years and bank loans come with prohibitive ratios and interest rates.

The startup uses technology to offer customised financing solutions for users to build equity and purchase their homes. Homebase will allow a user to select the home they wish to live in or provide an agent to give advice. The company then buys the home with a 20% deposit from the client. The client then moves in and build monthly deposits to build their savings towards the price of the home which they are free to cash out and move away from at any time.

The company was the first Vietnamese company to be selected for the prestigious Y-Combinator startup accelerator program and has plans to develop its tech and hire new talent to make homeownership less of a pipe dream for many in the region.