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Opendoor Goes Public With $4.8B Social Capital Merger

By  |  September 16, 2020

Opendoor Labs, the home-selling platform backed by SoftBank Group, announced on Tuesday, September 15, that it has agreed to go public through a merger with a blank-check company led by venture investor Chamath Palihapitiya in a deal that will value the company at US$4.8 billion, reported Reuters.

Opendoor buys properties from sellers and makes repairs, at a service charge, then lists them for sale. As part of the deal with Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings, Opendoor will get US$1 billion cash, including US$600 million from Palihapitiya and other investors such as BlackRock and Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan.

OpenDoor was hit hard by the pandemic this year and laid off 35% of its workforce in April. As the home resale business started to recover, it looked for capital to fuel expansion and opted to go public through merging with Social Capital over a traditional initial public offering.