In Vietnam, the homeownership rate is 90 percent and many millennials struggle to buy a home for themselves. This is combined with skyrocketing property prices and a lack of financing options. Headquartered in Vietnam, Homebase is a leading proptech company that makes the dream of owning a home possible for anyone with an alternative traditional mortgage financing.
Stellar list of investors
In a recent development, the company has raised $30 million in an equity and debt financing round. The funding round has come from leading global investors including Y Combinator, Goodwater Capital, Partech Partners, Emles Advisors, Ace and Company alongside Michael Seibel, CEO of Y Combinator, and operators and executives from SoFi, Opendoor, Republic, Microsoft, Instacart, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Binance and more.
Also, the round involves strategic investors from the previous rounds including VinaCapital Ventures (VC arm of Vietnam’s largest fund management company), Brian Ma (Co-founder and ex-CEO of Divvy Homes); Troy Steckenrider III (ex-COO of Zerodown); and Darius Cheung (Founder & CEO of 99.co, the largest property portal in Singapore and Indonesia).
Aspires to growth
Homebase intends to deploy the funds to expand its market leadership in the proptech industry in Southeast Asia and comes one step closer to its mission. Furthermore, the company intends to develop its proprietary technology, get into additional partnerships with real estate agents and developers and grow its team. Already, Homebase has doubled its headcount since last year and is hiring across the board actively.
Backed by Y Combinator
Homebase was founded by Phillip An and Junyuan Tan in 2019 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to help make homeownership accessible across Southeast Asia. The founders joined hands with a management team with over 50 years of shared relevant experience from institutions such as McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, Grab, Harvard, Stanford, and MIT.
They came up with the idea as they realised that there was a lack of accessible financing options for homebuyers in the country. Homebase intends to empower homeownership for 100,000 families all over Southeast Asia.
No mortgage concerns!
With its flagship Co-Investment product, Homebase purchases home upfront for its clients. They can move in and buy it later at any time. Eventually, there will be no mortgage issues for buyers. Clients can fully buy when they are ready or pay using the accumulated cash.
With its flagship product, the ownership buyback per month is optional, which means the monthly payments are up to 50 percent lower than conventional home buying options. On the whole, the first Co-Investment transaction offers a better path to homeownership with greater flexibility.
How Homebase works?
Homebase provides a flexible alternative to conventional mortgage financing. It lets clients choose any home they wish to buy or the real estate agent will help them find one. Clients can buy a home with a minimum of 20 percent deposit as the company will pay for them in cash. Once clients move into their homes, they can renovate the home or rent the same.
Each month, they have to deposit a specific amount, which builds their savings and there is no interest, rent or hidden fees. Once they have deposited 100 percent of the price of the home, they can buy it out.
