Compass

Compass provides residential real estate brokerage services in the United States, pairing independent contractor agents with its own software for listings, marketing and client management. It was founded in New York City in October 2012 as Urban Compass, Inc. by Ori Allon, a former Twitter engineering director, and Robert Reffkin, a former chief of staff to the president of Goldman Sachs. In 2021 the company settled a long dispute with Avi Dorfman and recognized him as a member of the founding team. Reffkin is chief executive.

Urban Compass closed an $8 million seed round in December 2012. Its $20 million Series A, announced in September 2013 at a $150 million valuation, brought in Advance Publications and Marc Benioff alongside returning investors Founders Fund, Thrive Capital and .406 Ventures. In September 2015 Institutional Venture Partners led a $50 million round at an $800 million valuation, taking total funding to $123 million. Fidelity led a $100 million round in November 2017 at a $1.8 billion valuation, and weeks later the SoftBank Vision Fund invested $450 million at a $2.2 billion post money valuation. In July 2019 Compass raised $370 million in a Series G from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Dragoneer Investment Group and the SoftBank Vision Fund at a $6.4 billion valuation, bringing private funding to about $1.5 billion, with Qatar Investment Authority also among earlier backers.

Compass priced its IPO on April 1, 2021 at $18 per share, the low end of a reduced range, selling 25 million shares for $450 million in gross proceeds. The stock closed its first day at $20.15 and trades on the NYSE as COMP. The company cut staff in several rounds in 2022 and 2023. On January 9, 2026 it completed the all stock acquisition of Anywhere Real Estate, the former Realogy, at an exchange ratio of 1.436 Compass shares per Anywhere share, a deal Wikipedia values at $1.6 billion. The combined group operates Coldwell Banker, Century 21, Corcoran, Sotheby's International Realty and other brands, and Compass reported 2025 revenue of about $6.96 billion.

Compass illustrates late stage growth capital pricing a brokerage like a technology company. Early backers such as Founders Fund and Thrive Capital entered below a $150 million valuation, while the 2017 to 2019 crossover rounds led by Fidelity and SoftBank were priced between $1.8 billion and $6.4 billion. The IPO arrived about eight and a half years after founding, and the Anywhere deal shows a venture backed company using public stock to consolidate its legacy competitors.