Proptech Unicorn Habi Acquires Mexican Startup Pulppo

Latin American proptech unicorn Habi is expanding its domain with the acquisition of broker technology firm Pulppo, a move aimed at expanding the company’s reach across Mexico, Colombia and Argentina.

The Colombia-founded residential real estate platform bought Pulppo to expand services for agents and brokers throughout the region, Habi co-founder and CEO Brynne McNulty Rojas told Bloomberg. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Pulppo’s technology is designed to help brokers manage clients and transactions using artificial intelligence tools similar to those used by U.S. brokerage giant Compass, according to the publication. Founded by Matias Gath and Agustin Iglesias, both alumni of startup accelerator Y Combinator, the platform focuses on improving lead management, customer communication and deal tracking for agents navigating Latin America’s fragmented housing markets.

The acquisition adds another piece to Habi’s ambition of building an end-to-end residential real estate system across Latin America.

Habi launched in Colombia in 2019 and quickly expanded into Mexico, positioning itself as a digital marketplace designed to streamline home buying and selling in markets where transactions often take far longer than in the U.S. The company says that deals across Latin America can take 12 to 18 months to close, a lag driven by informal processes, limited data and fragmented brokerage networks.

Habi has been building a platform that combines listings, valuation tools, brokerage services and financing products in order to address that friction, an approach modeled partly on digital-first real estate marketplaces and transaction platforms.

The company became Latin America’s first proptech unicorn, surpassing a $1 billion valuation during the venture funding boom of the early 2020s. In 2021, Habi amassed $100 million in a Series B round led by Softbank, as previously reported in The Real Deal.

The Pulppo acquisition also reflects a broader shift in the region’s startup ecosystem. After a pandemic-era surge in venture capital, rising U.S. interest rates slowed funding and pushed startups toward consolidation, according to Bloomberg. Investors have increasingly favored companies with clearer paths to profitability and scale.

McNulty Rojas said Habi is actively exploring additional acquisitions as it builds out its platform, hoping to add clarity across Latin America’s massive but historically opaque housing markets.

— Eric Weilbacher