Closinglock, a proptech and fintech startup working in the real estate transaction field, today announced closing a $4 million seed round led by Texas-based LiveOak Venture Partners, according to a press release.
Other participants included RWT Horizons and GTMfund, with the funding intended to expand its teams across sales, customer services and product development, the release says. LiveOak Venture Partners has invested in over 50 companies, including DISCO, Digital Pharmacist, Eventus, OJO Labs, Opcity, Homeward and TrustRadius and has almost $500 million under its management, according to the release.
Closinglock’s claims its technology solves the problem of wire fraud technology in the real estate industry, an issue it estimates costs over $1 billion per year in lost funds. NAR estimates a loss of almost $7 billion in victim losses in 2021 to such fraud.
In order to combat this, Closinglock uses a secure portal technology where title and escrow professionals do not need to share “sensitive information” over emails, where it says the majority of this fraud occurs.
“The top concern amongst real estate title and escrow companies remains wire fraud as a single wire fraud incident can bankrupt entire organizations,” said Andy White, CEO of Closinglock, in the statement.
The company also has plans to expand its business in the real estate transactions space and says it will partner with proptech investors like LiveOak in the future, White added. Closinglock also noted it has helped serve some of the largest title companies, home builders and attorneys in the industry, saying its clients represent over $100 billion in real estate transactions to date across all 50 states and 42 countries.
Mike Marcantonio, partner at LiveOak Venture Partners and a board member at Closinglock, explained the partnership will curb the risks in real estate transactions. He also said in this regard, Closinglock’s product development, domain knowledge and security will assist stakeholders.
“Closinglock’s ability to build trust with buyers, brokers, and title companies by securing the highest risk element of the transaction provides the company with a unique opportunity to build out a comprehensive platform for managing the entire transaction closing process,” said Marcantonio in the release.
Closinglock’s launched its secure portal as its first product in 2018 with the goal of protecting title companies and attorney offices from real estate wire fraud. Today it says its products include secure wire instructions, document sharing, eSignature and loan payoff verifications.
In other recent proptech news, Procore Technologies, Inc., a construction management proptech, appointed Steve Davis as its president of product and technology. Tour24, a virtual self-guided housing tour proptech, also appointed Satish Janumpalli as its chief technology officer and Joanna Hackney as its chief operating officer.