Homeward raises $120M Series D as it bets on buy-before-you-sell financing

TLDR

• Homeward has raised a $120 million Series D, led by asset-backed credit specialist Saluda Grade, to grow its buy-before-you-sell and cash-offer financing products for homeowners.¹²
• The Austin-based startup also secured a separate $330 million asset-backed debt facility to fund more home transactions, taking its total equity raised since 2018 to $360 million.¹²
• Homeward declined to disclose its new valuation, saying it is similar to the "just north of $800 million" mark reported at its 2021 Series C.¹
• CEO Tim Heyl says a 2021 pivot toward its Sell Before You List product helped more than quadruple revenue even as US home sales fell roughly 30%.¹

Homeward has closed a $120 million Series D round led by Saluda Grade, an alternative investment firm specialising in asset-backed credit, with participation from Continental General Insurance, Citi Ventures, Magnetar Capital, Norwest, LiveOak Ventures, Adams Street Partners, Javelin Venture Partners, Harmony Partners, Era Ventures and First American.¹² The Austin-based company, which works through real estate agents to help homeowners buy before selling or get a fast cash offer on their existing property, has also lined up a separate $330 million asset-backed debt facility to fund more transactions, bringing its total equity raised since its 2018 founding to $360 million.¹²

Homeward declined to disclose the valuation behind the new round, saying it is in line with the roughly $800 million mark reported at its $136 million Series C in 2021.¹ Founder and CEO Tim Heyl told Crunchbase News the company's Sell Before You List product, a cash purchase with a close in weeks followed by a resale on the open market, has driven more than four times revenue growth since 2021 even as US home sales fell by about 30%, as homeowners increasingly need to free up equity without waiting out a slow market.¹ Homeward says it has worked with more than 25,000 real estate agents and financed over $4 billion in transactions to date.¹

The raise lands amid a broader pickup in proptech funding: real estate-related startups have pulled in roughly $12.7 billion so far in 2026, Crunchbase data shows, on pace to beat 2025's $12.3 billion but still well below the sector's 2019 peak of $24 billion.¹ In its own announcement, Homeward framed the capital as fuel for expanding its cash-offer and bridge-financing products nationwide, with CEO Heyl saying the investment lets the company "help agents win more business, deliver a better client experience and close more deals."²

Why it matters: investors are backing asset-backed financing models that let homeowners unlock equity without selling into a stalled market, a bet that proptech's next growth phase comes from products that remove transaction friction rather than from marketplace listings alone.