Modus
Technology platform for home closing title and escrow.
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| - | investor investor investor | €0.0 | round |
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| Total Funding | 000k | ||
Modus was a real estate technology company that provided a platform to digitize and automate the title and escrow phase of a home closing. The company was founded in Seattle in 2018 by Alex Day (CEO), Jai Sim (Chairman), and Abbas Guvenilir (CTO) with the goal of making the closing process faster, more secure, and more transparent for real estate agents and their clients. The founding team combined previous startup experience from Peach, a lunch delivery company where Day and Sim worked together, and enterprise software experience from Guvenilir's time at ServiceNow. Their idea won a hackathon at Madrona Venture Labs, which prompted them to officially launch the company.
The company developed a platform with features like an interactive closing dashboard, digital earnest money deposits, secure document storage, and remote online notary services. This aimed to replace antiquated, offline processes with a streamlined, tech-enabled solution. Modus's business model was based on charging a fee for its closing services. The company served real estate agents, buyers, and sellers, primarily in Washington state, with plans for nationwide expansion. By October 2019, Modus had facilitated over $1 billion in residential purchases and had raised a total of $14 million from investors, including NFX, Felicis Ventures, and Trulia co-founder Pete Flint.
In October 2020, the high-growth startup was acquired by Compass, a real estate technology brokerage, for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition was intended to integrate Modus's software into Compass's end-to-end platform, adding title and escrow to its suite of services. Following the acquisition, the Modus brand and its 60-plus employees initially continued to operate as part of Compass. However, in June 2022, as part of broader cost-cutting measures amid a cooling housing market, Compass announced it was shutting down the Modus business.
Keywords: home closing, title insurance, escrow services, real estate technology, proptech, digital closing, closing automation, real estate transaction, secure document storage, remote online notary, Alex Day, Jai Sim, Abbas Guvenilir, Compass acquisition, real estate agents, home buyers, home sellers, Madrona Venture Labs