ImpactAlpha, April 11 – Housing finance startup Landed raised $5 million last year from Chan Zuckerberg Initiative for its mission to help teachers buy homes and live in the high-priced Bay Area communities where they teach. Now the company has raised $7.5 million in a Series A round with backing from software-focused venture capital firm Initialized Capital.
Landed provides teachers with cash to make a down payment on a house, offering 10% of the asking price. Teachers have to come up with another 10%, and repay Landed 25% of the profits if and when they sell.
Since launching in 2015, the company says it has helped people buy homes collectively worth over $100 million in its home market of San Francisco, as well as Denver, Seattle, San Diego and Los Angeles.
The company is now expanding into the higher education domain, partnering with institutions like Bellevue College, in Bellevue, Washington, where instructor salaries’ average $65,000 per year but average home prices top $900,000, according to real estate sites Zillow and Redfin.
