The news: Inspectify, a 2-year-old Seattle startup tackling the home inspection process, raised $8 million from several VCs, real estate giant Redfin, and execs from startups such as Built Technologies, Side, Sundae, Flyhomes, and Steadily.
The gist: The company serves as both a booking platform for those needing a home inspector, and also develops software used by inspectors during the inspection itself. The idea is to use tech to replace traditional static PDF inspection reports, while analyzing and aggregating all the data from each report.
“We’re collecting the most robust dataset on the home, every time we get in,” said CEO Josh Jensen. “Our long-term vision is we want to build the API of the home.”
There are around 1,500 inspectors on the marketplace. Inspectify has a number of partnerships with agents, brokerages, real estate investment companies, and newer startups such as Flyhomes and Orchard. It takes a 15-to-20% cut of each inspection booked, and also collects revenue by charging fees from partners who use the software within their own branded platforms.
The founders: Jensen is a former Flyhomes exec and a long-time residential real estate home flipper. Denis Bellavance, who previously co-founded meal delivery startup Peach and spent time at Zillow, Loftium, and Amazon, is co-founder and CTO. The entrepreneurs participated in Y Combinator last year, and now lead a 32-person team.
The investors: Nine Four Ventures led the Series A round, which included Foundational Capital, the HSB Fund of Munich Re Ventures, and Socially Financed. Chase Gilbert and Nichole Wischoff of Built Technologies; Guy Gal of Side; Josh Stech of Sundae; Tushar Garg of Flyhomes; and Darren Nix of Steadily also invested. Total funding to date is $10 million.
The take: Inspectify is one of countless new “proptech” startups aiming to digitize various parts of the real estate process. Inspections, though, seem to be one area that hasn’t yet been saturated with software startups. “It’s such a massive industry,” Jensen said of the real estate sector. “You can have very niche verticals and build a billion dollar company.”
Inspectify could potentially expand into other markets such as home appraisals or insurance as it collects more data from inspections.
“Data from inspections has long been underutilized due to the fragmented nature of the industry,” Kurt Ramirez, general partner at Nine Four Ventures, said in a statement. “Inspectify’s approach allows exponentially more fidelity and structuring of property data that is poised to fundamentally change how real estate is bought, sold, and managed.”
Related: Seattle appraisal startup Aloft lands $20M from real estate heavyweights
