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Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →Property technology companies raised about US$2.21 billion in the third quarter of 2026, according to CRETI data reported by Inman on 7 October. More than half of that money went to seven companies, and none of the seven builds tools for real estate agents or brokerages.
The figures come from a CRETI report on proptech financing, summarised by Inman's Nick Pipitone in the trade publication's technology roundup. The report itself was not consulted for this article, so every number below is CRETI's as Inman gave it. In the same week, the trade press reported a financing of US$450 million by Homeward, a home-financing company based in Austin, Texas. It is a useful example of how a total of this kind is put together, because most of it is not equity at all.
CRETI data for the third quarter of 2026, as reported by Inman on 7 October 2026. Approximate figures in US dollars; venture, private equity and debt combined.
What the quarter's total counts
The first thing to know about the US$2.21 billion is what sits inside it. Inman reports that the CRETI figure combines three kinds of money: venture capital, private equity and debt financing. It is therefore not a venture capital total, and it should not be compared with one.
The difference matters for anyone who reads a funding headline as a measure of investor appetite for young companies. A private equity investment and a debt financing are both counted here, next to venture rounds. A quarter can look strong on this measure because a few large private equity or debt transactions closed in it, whatever the mood among early-stage investors.
The US$2.21 billion is not a venture capital figure
CRETI's third-quarter number, as Inman reports it, adds venture capital, private equity and debt financing together. A count that covers venture rounds only would measure something else, and the two cannot be set side by side.
The source entries behind this article give no figure for the previous quarter or for the third quarter of 2025, so no trend is stated here. What the Inman report does allow is a look at how the money was shared out within the quarter itself.
Related readDubai's property portals: owners, listing rules and broker costsSeven deals and US$1.28 billion
According to the CRETI data in Inman, the seven largest deals of the quarter came to about US$1.28 billion. Set against a total of about US$2.21 billion, that is 58 per cent. The rest of the market, every other proptech financing of the quarter, shared about US$0.93 billion, or 42 per cent.
Three of the seven are named with an exact amount. EliseAI led the quarter with a Series F round of US$350 million, which Inman says takes the company's total funding to roughly US$742 million. Kahua received a private equity investment of US$250 million. Invenergy raised US$215 million. Together those three account for US$815 million.
The other four, Buildots, TerraFirma, ICON and Habitat, each raised between US$104 million and US$130 million, Inman reports. The report gives a range for the group and not a figure for each company. Subtracting the three named amounts from the seven-deal total leaves roughly US$465 million for the four of them, an average of about US$116 million each, which sits inside that range.
The chart below sets the three named deals of the quarter beside the Homeward financing reported in the first days of October, which is the subject of the second half of this article.
Third-quarter deals: CRETI data reported by Inman, 7 October 2026. Homeward: FinTech Global, 6 October 2026; the amount combines US$120 million of equity and US$330 million of debt facilities and was reported after the quarter ended.
One detail of the list stands out for the readers of a magazine about the people who sell property. Inman notes that none of the seven biggest deals went to a tool built for agents or brokerages. The largest cheques of the quarter were written elsewhere in the property technology field.
Related readDubai's REES initiative and PropTech Hub: targets, entry routes, deliveryLarge rounds at an early stage
Two of the seven deals drew a comment from CRETI because of when they happened in the life of the company. TerraFirma and Habitat each raised more than US$100 million in a Series A round, according to the Inman report. The report's remark is about the stage of the two companies as much as about the amounts.
Inman quotes the CRETI report directly on the point: "Those are unusually large commitments for companies at that financing stage."
The same report carries a warning for the companies that are not on the list. CRETI said, in Inman's account, that mid-market companies without early momentum or proven scale may struggle to raise money. Read with the 58 per cent figure, the picture is of capital gathering around a small number of names. The report presents this as a risk for a category of company, not as a forecast, and nothing in the Inman summary says how many firms are in that position.
Homeward's US$450 million, as the sources date it
The financing reported in the first days of October went to Homeward, which is based in Austin, Texas. FinTech Global reported on 6 October that the company had raised US$450 million, made up of a Series D equity round of US$120 million and asset-backed debt facilities of US$330 million. Real Estate News, another trade publication, had carried the same two amounts in its technology roundup dated 1 October.
A caution on the date is needed. Those are the dates of the two reports. Homeward's own announcement was not located during research for this article, so the day on which the company made the financing public is not confirmed here: the earliest report seen is the one dated 1 October. Homeward does not appear among the seven third-quarter deals that Inman lists from CRETI's data, and the sources used here do not say in which quarter CRETI will count it.
Related readNew South Wales property data tools: what each official one showsThe split between the two parts of the raise is the point of the example. The equity, US$120 million, is a little under 27 per cent of the US$450 million. The debt, US$330 million, is a little over 73 per cent. A reader who sees only the headline number could take it for a venture round larger than EliseAI's. Measured on equity alone, it is about a third of the size of that round.
FinTech Global reports that the Series D was led by Saluda Grade. The participants it names include Continental General Insurance Company, Citi Ventures, Magnetar, Harmony Partners, Norwest, Adams Street Partners, LiveOak Ventures, Parker89, Era Ventures and Javelin Venture Partners, among others.
On the use of the money, the same report says Homeward intends to expand its financing products, invest in its technology and grow across the 48 contiguous states. The debt facilities have a narrower job: they fund additional transactions. That fits the nature of the business, which puts money into individual home purchases and sales.
What Homeward finances
Homeward's products all address one moment: a homeowner who wants to buy the next home before the present one is sold, or who wants to make an offer that does not depend on a mortgage approval. FinTech Global describes three of them, set out below. The company also operates Homeward Mortgage and Homeward Title, according to the same report.
| Product | What it provides |
|---|---|
| Buy Before You Sell | Bridge financing, with a guaranteed backup offer. |
| Cash Offer | A cash offer to the seller, who shares in the gains when the home is resold. |
| Buy with Cash | A cash-backed offer on the purchase, refinanced after closing. |
The company's figures on its own reach, as FinTech Global gives them, are more than 25,000 partner agents and more than US$4 billion in residential transactions facilitated. Those are company numbers relayed by the trade press, not audited results.
Related readNew South Wales Strata Hub: what schemes report, fees and penaltiesHomeward presents itself as working through agents, not around them. FinTech Global quotes Tim Heyl, its founder and chief executive: "Guidance and expertise from trusted real estate agents will always be at the center of every successful home transaction."
The lead investor frames the business in similar terms. Ryan Craft, founder and chief executive of Saluda Grade, told FinTech Global: "Homeward is working to solve a financing problem that arises at a consequential moment for homeowners and their agents."
Homeward is not alone in offering money around a sale. Inman reported on 8 October that eXp presented eXp Ready, a seller-preparation financing offer provided with Notable, of up to US$50,000. It is a different product at a very different scale, aimed at getting a home ready for the market, but it belongs to the same family of services that an agent can bring to a client.
Where agent-facing tools stood this week
If the large third-quarter cheques went elsewhere, the agent-facing part of the industry still produced news in the same days. Most of it concerned platforms and partnerships, not funding rounds.
HousingWire reported on 8 October that Midwest Real Estate Data, known as MRED, and NoCoast MLS announced a partnership on 7 October. NoCoast, which was created by Iowa Realtors and serves about 1,300 professionals through five associations, will operate as "Powered By" MRED while keeping its brand and its full historical listing data. MRED provides multiple listing services to 16 Realtor associations that support more than US$43 billion in residential and commercial transactions a year, according to HousingWire. The financial terms were not stated.
Related readSingapore's official property tools: what HDB, URA and CEA put onlineReal Estate News reported on 1 October that Land Use Labs officially launched a commercial zoning data platform, built for developers, lenders, attorneys, consultants, researchers and public agencies. It has six products, among them Parcel Reports and a Zoning API, with data taken from official codes and maps and reviewed by human analysts. Its founder, Sara Bronin, said the company intends to keep the National Zoning Atlas going as a free public resource, according to the publication.
The same roundup noted that Snapdoor joined EXIT Realty's Premier Partner Program. Snapdoor supplies a private-label dashboard for sellers that logs showings, open-house attendance and offers.
None of these three items came with a funding amount in the reports used here. They show a part of the sector that, this week at least, grew by agreement and by product launch.
What is not yet known
Several points remain open on 9 October. The CRETI report was read only through Inman's summary, so the full list of third-quarter deals, the number of deals counted and the split between venture, private equity and debt are not available here. The exact amounts raised by Buildots, TerraFirma, ICON and Habitat are given only as a range.
For Homeward, the date of the company's own announcement remains to be confirmed, and with it the quarter in which data providers will record the financing. For the MRED and NoCoast partnership, the effective date and the transition timeline are not stated in the reporting used here.
What the figures do establish is narrow and clear. On CRETI's count, as reported by Inman, about US$2.21 billion reached proptech companies between July and September, about US$1.28 billion of it through seven deals, and the tools that agents and brokerages use every day were not among them.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Agents Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for real estate professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
