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JetClosing, a cloud-based digital title and escrow startup, announced this morning that it has raised $9 million in a Series B funding round.
T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. led the financing, which also included participation from Pioneer Square Labs (PSL) and Trilogy Equity. The investment brings the Seattle-based company’s total raised since its 2016 inception to $35 million.
JetClosing’s cloud-based platform aims to make home closings and mortgage refinances “more transparent, efficient, safe, and stress-free for everyone involved in the transaction” by streamlining the “historically manual” title and escrow process.
Homebuyers, sellers, agents and borrowers have the ability to collaborate remotely using JetClosing’s online dashboard or mobile app, both of which the company says enable secure document transfers, wire transactions, remote online notarizations (RON), and e-signatures.
The platform also provides real-time notifications on the status of a transaction.
JetClosing is currently available in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Florida, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington.
The company plans to use its new capital to boost its offerings and expand into new markets. One of JetClosing’s specific goals with the funding is to improve the overall user experience in its app, including more personalization features for agents who are opening multiple JetClosing orders every month.
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, JetClosing has seen a big bump in business. In particular, in June, it saw a 124% increase in orders compared to April.
In July, JetClosing says it achieved a record number of new orders — half home purchases and half refinances. It expects to see continued double-digit growth every month for refinance orders.
Part of that can be attributed to new legislation that allows for RON in nearly every state compared to only 23 prior to March, the company said. In general, it’s seeing an influx of refinance applications that are being processed remotely.
“Before COVID, agents found that buyers and sellers were quick to choose JetClosing over traditional title companies because it is a far more convenient, secure, efficient and cost-effective solution for closing on a home,” JetClosing CEO Dan Greenshields told HousingWire. “Topped with new social distancing norms, people are now dependent on digital tools like JetClosing that allow them to skip the in-person meetings and complete their home transactions from anywhere in the world.”
In an effort to prevent fraud commonly associated with home-buying scams, JetClosing said it has implemented a number of security measures, including a recent partnership with CertifID, an identity and account verification platform for protecting money transfers.
Geoff Entress, managing director of PSL, said that his firm’s investment in JetClosing recognizes “the company’s growth as well as the value of the underlying technologies that power the platform and protect user data.”
“Cybersecurity is so critical in a remote operating environment and JetClosing’s standards are unmatched in the industry,” he added.
JetClosing is usually recommended by the real estate agent or lender to the home buyer, but the company said it has also seen cases where sellers’ agents refer its service to the buyer.
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