Israeli startup streamlines US real estate market

Israeli company Dono, which operates in the field of real estate registration in the United States, announced today (Tuesday) the completion of a $3.7 million seed funding round. The round was led by lool Ventures with participation from Boston-based Link Ventures, /at inc, and Recursive Ventures. Notable angels like Lemonade CEO Shai Wininger, Melio CEO Matan Bar, and the Gura brothers, founders of Zebra Medical and Empathy, also participated.

"Uncertainty and lack of transparency in the American real estate market have posed ongoing risks to the financial sector since its inception," said Tali Gross, CEO and co-founder of Dono. "The annual expenditure on ownership checks is close to $30 billion and growing. By leveraging language models and other tools, Dono not only enables more accurate, efficient, and quicker real estate transactions but also reduces transaction costs for all involved parties."

The company has developed an AI-based platform that allows various players in the US real estate market to access relevant documentation for properties and property owners, verify ownership identity, map the legal status of properties in real-time, and interact with associated historical data to get a comprehensive view of transactions and make informed decisions. The platform is currently used by real estate investors, developers, law firms, and the title industry. The title search process, typically done manually and lasting from days to weeks, costing hundreds of dollars per transaction, is streamlined by Dono's platform.

"Solving Ownership Verification"

Due to the absence of a standardized real estate registration system in the US, the title industry has developed, including title insurance, which protects buyers and financial institutions from scenarios where property ownership is flawed for various reasons. Dono's data platform allows title insurance companies to verify ownership status in minutes, unlike the current process which can take days and is prone to errors and inaccuracies.

Dono extracts documents from numerous information sources simultaneously, retrieves data from hundreds of different document types, and tags it to enable better, faster decision-making in the US real estate industry without compromising accuracy or consistency. Today, Dono is launching its platform in Florida. Since the beginning of the year, Dono has closed several significant deals with a major title insurance company, investment firms, and title service companies. The company’s product reduces the title search phase from days to minutes, with an average search time of under an hour.

"Dono solves one of the major issues in the American real estate industry, which is ownership verification. The inconsistency and lack of uniformity in the registration system pose a direct risk to the largest asset class in the US, with a combined value of over $70 trillion," said Maya Shotan Azulai, a partner at lool ventures. "The team, led by Tali, Ron, and Eyal, has built an advanced AI-based product that accurately addresses this issue in real-time, thus streamlining all processes surrounding real estate transactions. Their capabilities, knowledge, and unique experience stood out from the first meeting. We were happy to support the team in the maturation of their vision, and we are excited to work together to realize it and lead a significant change in the US real estate industry."

Dono was founded in 2023 by CEO Tali Gross, CTO Ron Likbournik, and COO Eyal Stern. The company currently employs about 11 people in its offices in Tel Aviv and Florida. The funds raised will be used to expand its operations to additional geographies across the US, increase its workforce, and enhance marketing efforts.