At a Glance
Co-founder: Alessandro Manca
Equity Nest logo by: Michael Gouveia
Equity Nest was founded in October 2018. The mission: make homeownership attainable for Canadians. Through extensive market research we uncovered a number of interesting insights. The primary finding: The biggest barrier to entry of homeownership is the down payment. Many Canadians find themselves stuck in an endless loop of paying rent rates that have become comparable to monthly mortgage payments, while seeing real estate prices rise as they attempt to save for a down payment. Homeownership it seems, has become an impossible dream for many Canadians. Equity Nest is a home equity co-investment platform that contributes up to 50% of your down payment. As a co-investor in your home, there are no monthly payments. Instead, Equity Nest retains a small percentage of the appreciated change in value of your home. As your partner, we win and lose together.
An initial 1-month digital marketing campaign generated $10M of potential down payments. This was an encouraging sign that we had identified an opportunity in the market and deeply understood our targeted market segments. We successfully assembled a team including a notable law firm and a Board of Directors consisting of financial professionals, accomplished entrepreneurs and an elected municipal official. Through various meetings with executives, financial professionals, major banks and venture capitalists our team received an investment commitment of $1.2M.
