A relatively new local startup is raising pre-seed funding as it prepares to ramp up sales and marketing.
Offerwell, based at 701 Ellicott St., Buffalo, has created an online real estate platform to help agents submit, accept and manage offers.
Since launching in May 2023, the startup has gotten hundreds of real estate agents in Western New York on its platform, according to Simon Mahfoud, CEO, and Nick Giambra, chief revenue officer.
“The agents need it and the consumers want it,” Giambra said. “So pairing up agents and consumers in a realtor-forward marketplace that’s super easy to use, that promotes the transparency, accountability and confidence while giving agents a product that actually gets them some time back is a huge passion of mine.”
Offerwell, which has three staff and six contractors, expects to close a $500,000 pre-seed round by end of October. Investors include the University at Buffalo Cultivator program; Dan Magnuszewski, co-founder of ACV Auctions; and Mark Longo, president and CEO of Block Longo LaMarca & Brzezinski PC a Buffalo real estate law firm.
The funds will help develop user products and experiences and support plans to enter the Rochester market by year-end and the Syracuse market after that.
Giambra, who has sold real estate in Western New York for the last 11 years, currently leads a real estate sales team of 15 at Keller Williams Realty WNY.
Mahfoud built his first website when he was 12 to help his family track expenses. He has over a decade of software development experience and spent five years at a stock exchange group.
The pair met several years ago when Giambra became part owner of a set of three properties on the West Side, where he grew up. Mahfoud and his family lived next door to one of the sites and they started talking.
They saw entrepreneurial traits, like intelligence, passion and trustworthiness, in each other. Mahfoud’s experience starting in 2019 as his family, local renters who had immigrated from Lebanon, sought to buy a house. The two realized the real estate market needed better efficiencies and real-time data.
After talking to “hundreds of agents” during the customer discovery phase, they created Offerwell.
So far, they’ve had hundreds of listings set up on the platform. The startup, which uses a subscription-based model, is free for agents who are submitted offers on Offerwell listings.
Agents can use the platform to share real-time information with clients such as number of offers or if an offer was viewed by the seller.
“Our designer is really good at building experiences that are empathetic and not adding more work to people’s existing workflows,” Mahfoud said.
