On the heels of a blockbuster year for the Canadian housing market, Toronto-based proptech company Properly has raised $44 million in a Series B round led by Bain Capital Ventures—a deal that values the company at $220 million. Founded in 2018, Properly aims to make it easier for Canadians to buy and sell homes, bringing its online brokerage to an industry that co-founder and CEO Anshul Ruparell said hasn’t seen much innovation in Canada.

So far, Properly has only operated in the Toronto area, where it has helped “hundreds” of people sell their homes, Ruparell said. With the new funding, the company will expand to Vancouver and the rest of Ontario. It plans to triple its team of 60 employees, and add to its staff of 30 real estate agents, over the next 12 months.

How it works: Properly’s free platform lets customers browse real estate listings and get estimates for home values. When users are ready to sell their property, they can enlist Properly’s team of local real estate agents to work on their behalf. It guarantees that if the home doesn’t sell within three months, the company itself will purchase it. And, in the meantime, because that guarantee is in place, sellers are able to obtain financing to buy their new home before their old house has officially sold. In exchange for its services, Properly takes a five per cent cut of all sales.

Other offerings include Properly Polish, an interest-free advance of $20,000 to put toward home repairs ahead of a listing, and Skip The Showings, in which Properly pays for accommodations for sellers while their house is being shown.

To support Properly’s efforts, a high-profile lineup of new investors has joined the round, including: 

• Michael Katchen, co-founder and CEO of Wealthsimple
• Spencer Rascoff, co-founder and former CEO of Zillow
• Eric Wu, co-founder and CEO of Opendoor
• Lydia Jett, partner at the SoftBank Vision Fund
• Jonathan Ehrlich, partner at Foundation Capital and former Facebook marketing director

Intact Ventures and FCT also invested for the first time.

Properly has benefited from a red-hot housing market in Canada since the start of the pandemic, though the trend has somewhat moderated. Still, Ruparell said the company’s model works even in a downturn. “We, as a company, try to spend our time focused on designing a service that supports our customers irrespective of market conditions,” Ruparell said.