Failed 2023

    Loft (Down Round)

    Brazilian iBuying never made sense at 13% interest rates. Loft's $2.9B peak valuation collapsed as the inventory model bled cash.

    Founded → Closed

    2018 → 2023

    Funding Raised

    $800M

    Industry

    Real Estate/PropTech

    Country

    Brazil

    Full Analysis

    São Paulo-based Loft raised $800M+ to digitize Brazilian residential real estate via an iBuying model: buy apartments, renovate, resell. Backed by SoftBank and a16z at a $2.9B peak in 2021. The thesis required cheap leverage — but Brazil's Selic rate hit 13.75% in 2022, making inventory financing crushingly expensive. Loft did three rounds of layoffs (>50% of staff), exited several markets, shut its mortgage arm, and reportedly raised a recapitalization at a steep down round. The company pivoted from iBuying to a lighter brokerage model. Investor losses run into hundreds of millions on paper.

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