Bogota — Colombian proptech Habi, which last year reached a valuation of more than $1 billion, raised about $6.3 million through a credit line with Bancóldex.
Habi told Bloomberg Linea that it will use this credit to strengthen its operations and portfolio in Colombia, where it was founded in late 2019 by Brynne McNulty Rojas and Sebastián Noguera.
Bancoldex president, Javier Díaz Fajardo, said “this loan is a boost to new technologies that support the real estate sector.” The executive said the funding will permit Habi to acquire properties in the affordable housing sector.
Habi executives told Bloomberg Línea that the company is using more than $250 million to buy houses in the coming months.
Last year, the company focused on consolidating its operations in the main cities of Colombia and Mexico where it opened shop.
Walk like a public company
In an interview with Bloomberg Línea after announcing the Bancóldex credit, Habi’s top executives said the company has an eye on launching an IPO in 2024 and that they are working as of now to become a public company.
CFO Marcos Kantt says “many companies in the sector dream or think that this milestone (launching an IPO) could be true.” For Habi, he says, although this is not an immediate priority, they see it as a serious possibility,
For now, he says, Habi is focusing on how to operate in the most transparent way, with the required internal controls, and with controllers to ensure that operations are running in the right way.
“This process has intensified in the last six months. EY is auditing our financial statements. We are closing an important credit line with a multilateral bank to be announced soon. This institution will be auditing us from an ESG point of view, thus, we are already working as a public company. We are not there yet, we are working to be there in the next quarters,” he said.