Purlin Closes Seed Round and Announces Strategic Relationship With Douglas Elliman

LOS ANGELES, January 11, 2022 (Newswire.com) - Purlin Co. (www.purlin.com) announced today that New Valley Ventures, the property technology investment vehicle of Douglas Elliman Inc. (NYSE: DOUG), along with Redwood Trust Inc. (NYSE: RWT), through its strategic venture investment platform, RWT Horizons, and angel investors, affiliated with the Band of Angels, have invested a combined $1.5 million in the AI-driven real estate and fintech start-up. Alongside the investment, Douglas Elliman announced that it had signed an agreement under which Purlin's technology will power systems used by their 6,600 agents and 46,000 annual clients.

"Purlin is a core component of our strategy to use technology-enabled services to simplify our agents' business as it relates to AI and home-search while unlocking great value for shareholders," said Scott Durkin, CEO of Douglas Elliman Realty, LLC. Dan Sachar, Managing Director of New Valley Ventures, added, "Purlin challenges the status quo through innovation that enables high-quality service. Purlin's AI platform will help all of Elliman's agents build and run their businesses as well as set the bar for best-in-class, intelligently personalized home search experiences."

Purlin is the first company to combine together AI, machine learning, and natural language processing with image recognition to sort through millions of listing photographs and identify the specific rooms, features, and styles that will most appeal to a given buyer. The result is a client experience in which buyers see houses they want to buy, rather than the endless tide of listings, in a given price range and geography provided by traditional search sites.

Purlin's technology platform is also the first to allow listing agents to proactively identify and directly engage active buyers most likely to buy a specific property by effectively running that same consumer-facing preference engine in reverse. This represents a sea-change in how agents market listings and attract clients both in terms of process efficiency and service levels.

The strategic investment from RWT Horizons validates Purlin's roadmap as the company leverages its platform to support the entire homebuying process. "Purlin's AI platform has the potential to transform the largest transaction for most people, and that is buying or selling their home," said Ryan McBride, Chief Investment Officer of RWT Horizons and COO of CoreVest, a division of Redwood Trust. "Purlin's technology extends beyond the broker to escrow, title, and mortgage finance. The company's platform has the potential to disrupt the status quo and this aligns with our RWT Horizons portfolio and overall strategy of leveraging technology to transform how parties transact across the real estate and financial sectors. We are excited about the current and potential advancements Purlin's technology brings to the home buying process." 

"A few years ago, we embarked on a mission to deliver on the promise of AI in real estate, to elevate the experience for buyers and sellers, for brokers serving them, and for everyone else who touches the transaction. Our new partnerships with Douglas Elliman and Redwood Trust prove that our mission and roadmap are resonating," said Giorgi Chigogidze, CEO of Purlin.

"Our team has unique, end-to-end capabilities spanning from designing engaging user experiences to generating first-party data," said Ilya Dorfman, CTO and CISO for Purlin, adding, "which allows us to harness the full power of AI in real estate."

"Purlin flips the real estate script by using AI to enable agents to heighten emotional value of client experiences beyond expectation," said Chris Steege, CMO and CSO of Purlin, concluding, "the emotional value proposition always wins."     

ABOUT PURLIN CO.

Purlin Co. designs, creates, and provides advanced AI solutions for the real estate market. Major brokerages, agencies, lenders, and other companies involved in real estate transactions can use Purlin's AI platform to expand their businesses and create superior client experiences. To learn more, please visit www.purlin.com. Contact: Chris Steege, 415-787-5462,
[email protected].

ABOUT DOUGLAS ELLIMAN INC

Douglas Elliman Inc. (NYSE: DOUG) is one of the largest residential brokerage companies in the New York metropolitan area, which includes New York City, Long Island, Westchester, Connecticut, New Jersey and the Hamptons, and the sixth largest in the U.S., with substantial businesses in California, Colorado, Texas, Florida and Massachusetts. In addition, Douglas Elliman sources, uses and invests in early-stage, disruptive property technology ("PropTech") solutions and companies and provides other real estate services, including development marketing, property management and settlement and escrow services in select markets. Additional information concerning Douglas Elliman is available on its website, www.elliman.com.

ABOUT REDWOOD TRUST

Redwood Trust, Inc. (NYSE: RWT) is a specialty finance company focused on several distinct areas of housing credit. Our operating platforms occupy a unique position in the housing finance value chain, providing liquidity to growing segments of the U.S. housing market not served by government programs. We deliver customized housing credit investments to a diverse mix of investors, through our best-in-class securitization platforms; whole-loan distribution activities; and our publicly-traded shares. Our consolidated investment portfolio has evolved to incorporate a diverse mix of residential, business purpose, and multifamily investments. Our goal is to provide attractive returns to shareholders through a stable and growing stream of earnings and dividends, capital appreciation, and a commitment to technological innovation that facilitates risk-minded scale. Since going public in 1994, we have managed our business through several cycles, built a track record of innovation, and a best-in-class reputation for service and a common-sense approach to credit investing. Redwood Trust is internally managed and structured as a real estate investment trust ("REIT") for tax purposes. For more information about Redwood Trust, visit Redwood's website at www.redwoodtrust.com or connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.

ABOUT RWT HORIZONS

RWT Horizons is Redwood Trust's strategic venture investment platform focused on early and mid-stage companies driving innovation in financial and real estate technology, digital infrastructure, and other related areas of focus. Investments made through RWT Horizons are designed to support companies whose technologies are accretive to Redwood's broader operations, including its residential and business-purpose lending platforms. For more information about RWT Horizons, visit RWT Horizon's website at www.rwthorizons.com.

Forward-Looking Statements: This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve numerous risks and uncertainties. Our actual results may differ from our beliefs, expectations, estimates, and projections and, consequently, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Forward-looking statements are not historical in nature and can be identified by words such as "anticipate," "estimate," "will," "should," "expect," "believe," "intend," "seek," "plan" and similar expressions or their negative forms, or by references to strategy, plans, or intentions. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Source: Purlin Co.