Lincoln startup LiveBy acquired by real estate giant

A Lincoln startup focused on neighborhood-level data and insights has been acquired by Fathom Holdings, Inc., the companies announced last week.  After the acquisition is finalized, LiveBy will become a wholly owned subsidiary of IntelliAgent, itself a subsidiary of Fathom Holdings.  In a press release, the companies said the purchase price is expected to be…

A Lincoln startup focused on neighborhood-level data and insights has been acquired by Fathom Holdings, Inc., the companies announced last week. 

After the acquisition is finalized, LiveBy will become a wholly owned subsidiary of IntelliAgent, itself a subsidiary of Fathom Holdings. 

In a press release, the companies said the purchase price is expected to be approximately $9 million, consisting of $3 million in cash and $6 million in Fathom Holdings common stock. 

The acquisition is a major milestone for LiveBy, which was founded in 2015 after co-founders Cory Scott and Matan Gill won the Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development’s Jumpstart Challenge.

After winning the reverse pitch contest, which was focused on how real estate companies could position themselves as experts in the digital space, Scott said he was approached by business leaders, asking how soon the product could be built.

“This was just 15 slides and an idea,” Scott said of the pitch. “But they wanted us to build this and partner (with us). It spun out really quickly from there.”

They applied to the NMotion Accelerator class of 2015 and were accepted about a month later. Then began a whirlwind of building, growing and developing the product. Ninety days later, the product pre-sold to a handful of customers, he said, proving they were on the right track. 

What started as a sort of “match.com for neighborhoods” eventually became the LiveBy product, which is focused on B2B and provides tools for real estate companies that leverage neighborhood data for website or agency use. 

“One thing we uncovered in trying to build great localized information is that neighborhoods are a very interesting level of geography,” Scott said. “Cities and counties, those never change and are government driven. But neighborhoods are subjective in a lot of cases.”

Zip code level data may not always accurately reflect a neighborhood, for example, so LiveBy’s product can provide realistic insights for people looking to buy and sell homes. It can also help real estate agents connect homebuyers with data without running afoul of Fair Housing Act regulations, Scott said. 

The company’s proprietary software platform and database covers most of North America, including all 50 U.S. states, Canada, Mexico, the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands. 

LiveBy currently has around 15 employees. The team will continue to support the product, and Scott will assume a leadership role at IntelliAgent.

An early focus on profitability and building strong customer relationships has helped LiveBy get to where it is today, Scott said. 

“I would venture to say we have some of the best vendor/customer relationships in this industry, because we allowed ourselves more time and we weren’t moving at the speed of light, and that ended up working out in our favor,” Scott said. 

The startup has office space in the Haymarket district in downtown Lincoln, and the majority of LiveBy’s employees live in Lincoln and Omaha. 

And now, after six years of heads-down work growing LiveBy, Scott said he’s excited to have finally completed the startup cycle. He looks forward to supporting the Nebraska startup community in various ways, including mentoring other homegrown tech companies and local entrepreneurs.

“To be able to prove it can work, and to help out people afterwards, that’s what I’m looking forward to,” Scott said. 

 

Originally published April 13, 2021.

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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