Publicly traded real estate firm The Real Brokerage has struck an agreement to acquire the mortgage brokerage arm of real estate and mortgage technology company LemonBrew.
The Real Brokerage, headquartered in Ontario, Canada, will pay $1.25 million to acquire the tech-enabled home loan platform, which does business in 20 U.S. states, including Texas, California and Florida. Real is paying $800,000 in cash and $450,000 in stock options, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchanges Commission on Monday.
As part of the acquisition, LemonBrew CEO Samir Dedhia and 25 other employees will be joining Real.
“We are excited to be joining forces with The Real Brokerage. Real’s technological vision for the future of integrated home buying is what drew us to the platform,” Dedhia said in a prepared statement. “This industry is ripe for disruption, and together we can make a huge impact.”
Headquartered in New Jersey, LemonBrew was previously known as SD Capital Funding. It rebranded in summer of 2020. According to data by mortgage technology platform Modex, LemonBrew loan officers produced $347 million over the last 12 months. The vast majority of loans – more than 80% – are originated by Rocket Mortgage, the data shows.
The mortgage brokerage arm has a strong presence along the Eastern seaboard, particularly in the Northeast and the Carolinas. LemonBrew Technologies also has divisions for title insurance and homeowners insurance.
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Real, founded in 2014 and led by Tamir Poleg, has a cloud-based platform and serves 44 states, Washington, D.C. and two Canadian providences. It has over 6,000 agents.
