A New York fintech that tried to turn houses into stocks - letting anyone buy a fractional share of a rental home for the price of a coffee, and collect the rent.
Real estate is the largest asset class in the United States - roughly $43 trillion of it in residential property alone. For most of that history, the entrance fee has been steep: a down payment measured in tens of thousands of dollars, a mortgage, a closing table, and a landlord's list of chores. Landa's founders looked at that wall and asked a simple question - what if the ticket cost $5?
Founded in New York in 2019 by Yishai Cohen and Amit Assaraf, Landa built a mobile app that sold fractional shares of individual single-family rental homes. Instead of pooling money into a blind fund, each property was placed in its own limited liability company, divided into as many as 100,000 shares, and offered to retail investors under SEC Regulation A. Buy a share, own a sliver of a specific house in Atlanta or Brooklyn, and collect a monthly cut of the rent. Landa managed the home; the investor watched it in an app.
By late 2022 the pitch had clearly resonated. Landa surpassed 200,000 registered users, had raised $33 million in venture equity plus roughly $62 million in debt to buy properties, and counted NFX, 83North and Viola among its backers. Then the harder half of the business - loans, rent flows, and the boring plumbing of owning real houses - caught up with it.
Real estate is the largest asset class in the U.S. at $43 trillion - yet historically only the wealthy could participate. Landa made it easy for anybody to invest, for as little as $5.
Landa acquired single-family rentals in high-cash-flow markets across the Sun Belt and Brooklyn.
Each property became its own LLC, split into 10,000–100,000 shares under SEC Regulation A.
Investors bought shares from $5 in the app and earned monthly dividends from the rent.
A secondary marketplace let investors buy and sell shares, adding liquidity real estate rarely has.
iOS and Android app to browse homes, buy fractional shares from $5, and track holdings in real time.
Each home its own LLC with up to 100,000 shares - you owned a specific property, not a blind pool.
Rental income distributed monthly, proportional to how many shares an investor held.
An in-app market to trade shares - Landa's answer to real estate's biggest weakness.
Unlike most platforms, Landa managed tenants, leasing and maintenance with its own software.
Fractional real estate is not a pure software business - it is a balance sheet. Landa funded property purchases with a mix of venture equity and debt. The rough shape of that stack:
The fractional and crowdfunded real estate space is crowded. REITs have offered pooled exposure for decades. Fundrise built a large retail base around managed portfolios. Arrived Homes, Lofty and Roofstock each chase versions of the single-family rental investor, while Cadre courted the wealthier end.
Landa's differentiators were specific. First, property-level ownership: you picked the actual house rather than buying into a fund, and transparency was the selling point. Second, the $5 floor - among the lowest minimums in the category. Third, vertical integration: Landa managed the homes itself instead of outsourcing, aiming to control the tenant and maintenance experience end to end.
Fourth, the secondary marketplace, which promised to make an illiquid asset tradable like a stock. That combination - low minimum, single-property clarity, in-house operations, and liquidity - was the argument for why 200,000 people signed up.
The same integration that was a moat also concentrated risk. Owning the operations meant owning the rent flows, the loan covenants, and the maintenance bills. When those strained, there was no third party to absorb the shock - a tension that defined Landa's later chapters.
A serial entrepreneur who launched his first startup - a B2B marketplace for bus companies called Smartbus - at 16, and sold it at 17 before his military service in Israel. He set Landa's mission of access-as-a-product.
A full-stack engineer who built the technical backbone: the app, the Regulation A share mechanics, and the property-management software that let a small team run homes across several states.
Landa created a platform that makes it easy for anybody to invest in residential real estate - for as little as $5.
Yishai Cohen and Amit Assaraf launch the company on an $8M seed round from NFX and 83North.
A $25M Series A co-led by NFX, 83North and Viola brings equity raised to $33M, plus ~$62M in debt. The financially inclusive platform launches.
The app surpasses 200,000 users across markets including Atlanta, NYC, Charlotte, Birmingham, Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville.
Viola Credit and L Finance sue in New York over alleged defaults on more than $35 million in loans.
A New York court places 119 homes into receivership; the app and investor portal go dark, freezing user funds and dividends.
SEC filings show a continuing stream of foreclosure and disposition notices as the portfolio is liquidated.
CEO Yishai Cohen sold his first company at 17 - a bus-industry marketplace he founded a year earlier.
A single Landa house could be divided into as many as 100,000 individual shares.
The entry point was $5 - roughly the price of a latte.
Landa managed the properties itself, unusual among fractional-investing platforms.
Homes clustered in high-cash-flow southern markets, with a foothold in Brooklyn, New York.