California-based real estate startup Radius has raised $13 million in Series A funding, according to an announcement Wednesday.
NFX Ventures, the co-founder of Trulia, led the funding round along with Crosscut, the largest seed equity venture capital firm in Los Angeles. The $13 million in Series A funding will be used to fuel its nationwide expansion and continue the growth of its executive team.
Founders Radius Biju Ashokan and Sanya Gurnani. credit: radius
“We are building a real estate business that empowers entrepreneurial agents to build the businesses of their dreams,” Radius co-founder Biju Ashokan said in a statement. “Agents should not have to choose between forgoing their commissions and getting support from their brokerage.”
“With [former Flyhomes executive] Sam [Kasle’s] companies with experience in expansion, [former Coldwell Banker Bain executive] Barbara [Hindle’s] Experience building great real estate brands, and with the support of our agents and investors, we are excited to expand Radius to include real estate professionals across the country.”
Radius’ journey into a full-fledged real estate brokerage has been six years in the making, with the startup launching as agent desks for social media and agent-focused referral network. In 2018, the startup changed its name to Radius and caught the attention of Flint, who was impressed by Ashokan and co-founder Sanya Gurnani’s ability to build a then 70,000-strong proxy platform without paid ads.
“It’s not something I’ve seen that has any level of attractiveness,” Flint told Radius’s Inman in 2018. “Within Trulia and Zillow, there are agent-agent community forums, but this is a desktop orientation. The real estate industry is basically a ‘collaboration’ industry – everyone collaborates with each other, everyone competes with each other.”
He added, “It’s basically a huge market. The way this business is done today, it’s done in a representative and offline way. This is a way to professionalize it and make it more efficient.”
Since then, Radius has launched into real estate brokerage operations with agents in California, Colorado, Texas and Georgia. Dubbed Radius Agent Realty, the virtual brokerage operates on a 100 percent commission model with two fixed-fee options of $100 per month for basic support and $250 per month for access to the entire Radius professional suite. Agents also pay coordination fees for buy-side ($900), sell-side ($1,050), and dual transactions ($1,35) plus $600 for E&O insurance.
Radius agents receive marketing, technology, training, legal compliance, lead generation, transaction coordination and brand support, along with access to a team of success managers, marketers, designers, brokers, mentors and coaches.
Besides Radius Agent Realty, Radius also offers a side option for team leaders that enables them to maintain their branding while Radius handles their back-end operations, including the detection and screening of new team members. Team leaders pay $350 per month and also follow the transaction and insurance fee structure for individual agents; However, they can charge override fees to their team members.
“The fixed fee structure is very important because it doesn’t matter the value of the property — it could be $200,000, $5 million or $10 million — the support provided by the mediation will be the same,” Ashokan told Inman. “Commission doesn’t need to be split, it has to be a flat fee. This is how every company charges people, so even real estate has to do it.”
Finally, Radius offers its flagship concierge service, Radius Assist, and has entered the energy purchasing world with pre-sale and pre-sale home financing options.
With the buy-to-be-sale option, Radius will buy sellers’ properties with an initial payment of up to 75 percent of the home’s present value, enabling them to pay off any mortgages. From there, Radius makes minor upgrades to the house, re-certifies it on the open market, and gives sellers upside.
“Whether it’s customer care, financial products like pre-sales or concierge teams, there’s a lot of support they need to succeed,” Akushan said of Radius’ expanding services. “What we are trying to sell here is a real estate company that empowers entrepreneurial agents because agents are all founders and entrepreneurs. They don’t have to do it alone.”
So far, Radius has had solid results from his rush into real estate sales. In the first quarter of 2022, Radius dealers and teams closed more than $400 million in sales — growth of 213 percent quarter-on-quarter and 300 percent year-over-year. The Radius referral network has also generated $25 billion in referral commissions since 2019.
“Radius’ dedication to building great technology and great real estate agents sets them apart,” Flint said of Radius’ progress since becoming a major investor in 2018. The platform and quality training will help certified agents and the next generation of real estate entrepreneurs alike.”
Brett Brewer, managing director of Crosscut Ventures, said he’s also excited to help support the next phase of Radius’ growth, as they launch sales operations in Washington, Florida and Oregon and begin the process of building a Radius mortgage product.
“At Radius, we see an opportunity to be part of building the next wave of great real estate talent and technology,” Brewer said. “We are excited to see Biju and the team expand the comprehensive technology, training, marketing, and real estate community to agents across the country.”
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