Seattle proptech startup Picket announced Tuesday that it received $20 million in fresh funding to grow its real estate investment and property management platform. The Series B round was led by LL Funds, with participation from RET Ventures, which led the Picket’s Series A round in 2022.
Picket’s technology and services are designed to help real estate investors purchase and manage single-family rental properties. Its software analyzes the supply and demand dynamics of more than 25 U.S. markets, and automatically evaluates the investment potential of more than 50 million properties. These properties are ranked according to specific investor criteria, and each analysis includes rental and sale valuations, expected expenses, long-term asset appreciation and neighborhood-level data such as school scores, crime rates and income growth. It also facilitates transactions.
Once an investor purchases a property, their assets are moved to Picket’s property management system. All Picket-managed homes offer renters with a digital leasing process, online bill pay and maintenance requests, smart home technology, a dedicated resident services team and a custom mobile app.
Although higher interest rates have dampened the enthusiasm of investors for purchasing homes, Picket has seen “significant” growth over the last 18 months, according to a statement from CEO and co-founder Quinten Shay, facilitating more than $270 million in single-family rental home investments last year alone. And while the platform has mainly served institutional clients to date, the company said it has plans to expand its reach to individual investors as well.
“We have seen persistent enthusiasm for residential real estate investing throughout the market cycle — especially in the single-family sector,” Shay said. “We believe we can help more investors confidently buy and manage rental homes and help more residents realize the exceptional benefits of living in them. We will not be satisfied until we have fundamentally transformed the experience of both.
