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Compass’ costs to scale, LinkedIn and Zynga founders to take Hippo public National /
Compass’ cost of doing business
Ahead of its buzzed-about IPO, Compass offered investors a peek at its financials via an S-1 filed March 1.
Highlights from the 263-page document include the fact that Compass took in $3.7 billion in revenue last year, four times its revenue of $884.7 million in 2018. The tech-focused resi brokerage also lost $270.2 million in 2020, down from $388 million in 2019.
But one key takeaway is how much Compass spent to grow to its current size: 19,000 agents with $151.7 billion in sales last year.
Byron Lazine and Nicole White are two agents in Connecticut who give us their thoughts on the week’s news every Friday in “The Real Word,” a weekly video column on Inman.
Last month, Zillow reported its fourth-quarter earnings in its shareholder letter, which included highlights like a revenue of $789 million and a net income of $46 million, in addition to full-year results for 2020.
But what’s worth paying attention to, as Byron pointed out, is the average monthly unique users a fourth-quarter record of 201 million. For the full year of 2020, Zillow reported another record of 9.6 billion of mobile app and website visits.
Compass CEO Robert Reffkin (iStock, Getty/Illustration by Kevin Rebong for The Real Deal)
Since 2018, Compass has spent more than $300 million to scale its business, buying other brokerages and tech companies to support its “end-to-end platform,” according to the company’s IPO filing.
Backed by $1.5 billion in venture capital from investors including Fidelity, Wellington and SoftBank, Compass’ growth story has been unmatched in residential real estate. The brokerage aggressively courted agents after launching in 2012, but six years later, it switched gears and began scooping up firms wholesale.
Generally speaking, Compass’ acquisition strategy is to buy brokerages in markets that are top priorities for recruitment. Recent purchases of technology companies indicate Compass is not above buying a ready-made platform instead of building it in-house.