The company is selling its Canadian operations to Royal Bank of Canada, while also raising new funds from Vista Equity Partners.
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Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), a large financial services firm and the largest bank in its home country, is acquiring OJO Canada, the Canadian wing of Texas-based real estate tech firm OJO.
The deal includes all of OJO Canada’s assets and operations and will see 96 U.S.-based staff members, plus a few others in Canada, shift over to work for RBC. The companies did not publicly disclose financial details of the acquisition.
However, OJO also revealed this week a new deal with Vista Equity Partners to raise new debt. The company said that together, the Vista and RBC deals will net OJO $200 million.
The OJO Canada deal further enables the bank’s “commitment to support Canadians at every stage in their home buying journey by offering intuitive, digitally-enabled and insights-driven experiences and resources to help them make one of the most important decisions of their lives,” the companies said in a statement on the RBC acquisition.
John Berkowitz
John Berkowitz founded Austin-based OJO in 2015 and today serves as the company’s CEO. The firm has developed artificial intelligence-based tools designed to match consumers with homes as well as a referral network for agents.
On OJO’s website, the company describes its mission as helping consumers “on their home journey by enabling them to customize their search, connect them with industry experts, and equip them with financial tools so they feel prepared to buy, sell, or own.”
OJO first partnered with RBCx, a subsidiary of RBC, in 2018, according to the statement this week. The two firms used the partnership to test products in Canada and OJO then officially launched in…