Real-estate tech company Opendoor has acquired Toronto-based startup Skylight, a digital home-remodeling company, and Pro.com, a construction services company based in the United States.
Skylight was founded in 2016 by Jasper Malcolmson and Fiona Lake Waslander. Made up of architects, designers and general contractors, the company offers renovation services from the process of pricing to construction.
Founded in 2014, Opendoor offers a digital platform for the residential real estate industry. Its technology allows the process of buying and selling a house to be completed entirely online.
The digitization of the real estate industry accelerated during the pandemic as the suspension of in-person showings and meetings forced realtors to adapt.
The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board, for example, introduced a tool in April 2020 that allows its members to attach links of their open house live streams to their listings so that “interested clients can join the salesperson in real time as they walk through the property, present its features, and answer their questions.”
Opendoor recently introduced self-guided home walkthroughs in August. People can use their personal device to capture photos and videos of their home to upload to their seller dashboard. The next step will be for its pricing experts to finalize an offer.
Opendoor CEO and co-founder Eric Wu described Skylight as “focused on making the complex, costly, and offline process of home personalization more seamless and digital.”
Users are able to manage and track their remodelling project through Skylight’s Digital Renovation Hub. The personalized online portal allows users to view floor plans and the pricing of renovation materials as well as interact with contractors. Its technology also provides realistic 3D renders of the remodelling project.
Opendoor is also expanding its hiring into Canada, in Toronto or Vancouver, the latter where its chief technology officer, Ian Wong, is from. The majority of Skylight’s team is also based in Toronto and will continue to operate in the city as part of Opendoor.