MassMutual Ventures backs Awning

Real estate investing platform Awning is coming out of stealth and announcing a $9.3 million funding round. The seed round was led by Global Founders Capital with participation from MassMutual Ventures, Side co-founders Guy Gal and Ed Wu, SafeGraph founder Auren Hoffman, Opendoor’s former VP of Analytics Peter Fishman, Lightspeed Ventures Partner Justin Overdorff and Scale founder Lucy Guo.

Led by Shri Ganeshram and Danaus Chang, the San Francisco-based startup is on a mission to make real estate investing more accessible. Awning’s platform leverages machine learning and data analytics in an effort to bring forth attractive single-family rental properties nationwide. Each investor is then paired with an advisor to determine the investment strategy and the advisor can also help with securing financing and introducing property managers to oversee the properties and manage leasing and day-to-day maintenance.

Awning is open to investors across the US and Canada and it currently features properties in California, Texas and Florida. To date, the platform helped facilitate the sale of $5 million in real estate and it makes money by taking a commission from the seller.

Staying on the intersection of real estate and finance, MassMutual Ventures also recently backed Landed, a company helping essential professionals like teachers, nurses, and first-responders buy homes and build financial security near the communities they serve.