Property tech startup Opendoor Labs Inc. is planning to go public through a merger with a blank check company known as Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp. The IPO will be led by several investors including Chamath Palihapitiya.
The IPO will be backed by Japan based conglomerate SoftBank group Corp. (TYO: 9984) and it will leave the company with a market valuation of $4.8 billion.
Opendoor is a home selling platform which buys properties repairs them at a fee them puts them up for sale. The company was greatly affected by the pandemic resulting to it laying off 35% of its labor force back in April.
In a statement, Opendoor says the home resale business is starting to recover and it decided to capitalize on that to expand its operations and go public through a merger.
Inclusive in the merger deal, Opendoor will receive $1 billion in cash $600 million will come from Chamath Palihapitiya, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan and Blackrock.
The merger deal is scheduled to take place before the year wraps up.
