Libeen goes public with the launch of its SOCIMI and the mission of reaching 10,000 “affordable” homes by 2030

The real estate ‘proptech’ Libeen took shape in 2020 when entrepreneurs Sofía Iturbe and José Manuel Cartes found the formula for a business model that could work: building a bridge between renting and ownership through a savings service that facilitates young people’s increasingly complicated access to housing. Five years and multiple partners later, his initiative reaches a turning point with the start of an institutional stage that he will undertake with its listing on the stock market and the constitution of its listed real estate investment company (socimi).

The stock market adventure of the Spanish firm is, as of this Thursday, a reality with its debut on Portfolio Stock Exchange, the alternative stock exchange where technology and real estate companies are listed. It does so through its Socimi, in which it will invest, in the first phase, 25 million euros in the acquisition of 130 to 150 homes distributed among more than ten Spanish cities such as Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona or Malaga. For the second phase, the company projects an investment of more than 100 million euros, which will allow it to reach more than 1,000 homes in 2026. Its plans are part of its roadmap to 2030 which, under the model called ‘SmartHousing’, They aim to offer more than 10,000 homes before 2030 and replicate its model at the European level from 2027 with a first landing in Lisbon and Porto.

Libeen joins the trading floor after an exhaustive process of due diligenceauditing and structuring that has led it to start with a initial capitalization of 4.1 million euroscorresponding to equity invested to date in its asset portfolio and a line to invest 25 million euros. It should be noted that going public was already an objective that was explored years ago and has been possible thanks to the arrival of profiles such as Juan Velayosformer CEO of Neinor, who now heads the investment committee.

In this new stage, the board of the SOCIMI management company is made up of the co-founders together with Enrique Linares (co-founder of Letgo and partner at Plus Partners) and Alvaro Falco. In addition, among the main partners and investors are Andbank (via Actyus and MyInvestor), the German fund Cusp Capital (investor in companies like Zalando, Klarna or Delivery Hero), Benjamin Hellweg (sold Libeen’s competitor in the USA to Blackstone) and entrepreneurs like Inigo Juantegui (co-founder of La Nevera Roja).

But, in practice, how does your service work? The SmartHousing model allows users to choose the home they want to buy, which Libeen purchases for them. From there, the iTenant pays a monthly payment of around 1,250 euros (depending on the price of the home), and up to 30% of that fee is accumulated as savings for future purchases. With this system, your clients can access a mortgage and become owners in an average period of three to seven years. The firm assures that 100% of users who have completed the program manage to obtain mortgage financing and achieve average savings of more than 50,000 euros, improving the credit history of each client.