The idea of becoming a property investor for just $ 5 may look too good to be true.
And for many Landa users, a Proptech company that promised exactly that – it was.
Subparagraph It emerged from Stealth in August 2022, announcing a total of $ 33 million in funding and a promise to help everyday Americans have access to investment in real estate through fractional shares.
CEO Yishai Cohen and former CTO AMIT ASSARAF founded Landa in 2019 in an effort to make investments in real estate more comprehensive. The only requirements of the application were that users are over 18 years of age and US residents. They could start investing with just $ 5 and buy and sell shares as well as see real -time updates on their real estate from the Landa application. (Assaraf abandoned the company in December 2023, according to his LinkedIn profile. Has not responded to requests for comments.)
Today, Landa’s investment gate area is down and its application is non -functional. Users claim that they cannot access their funds and have not been paid dividends in months. The start is involved in differences, including the lawsuit by the early Viola investor.
A first user told TechCrunch that Landa stopped paying dividends in its shares in January. When he asked Landa about it, they “asked the question,” he said.
“I sent them repeatedly by email so I just released answers, nothing real,” the user said. “Then, a few months later, the application became useless. It will not open.”
The user then asked if he could delete his account, which he had opened in 2021, and sell the shares. But he found that Landa had disabled his ability to sell shares.
“They have virtually frozen from my funds and just closed the application,” the user said. “Where is the money? Why won’t they come back? “
Over 130 complaints They have been deposited against Landa at the Best Business Office, with dozens of people reflecting similar allegations. For example, on May 1st, a user who filed such complaint They shared that they had invested more than $ 8,000 through Landa and stopped taking dividends last fall. The user said Landa Customer Service responded to emails, saying the company “works for it”.
In mid-April, when TechCrunch asked Landa the issue-including its downside regime and if the company itself had closed-CEO Cohen said: “Of course no.
When asked why the application did not work and why users had not received dividends in months, Cohen’s answer still appears to be referred to the site, accusing the servers: “It is not related to dividends.
In further promotion, Cohen on April 18 shared the following statement: “We know the issues that influence our platform and product today and we want to assure all the investors we are actively working on to restore full functionality as soon as possible.
Cohen did not respond to our request for a situation on 20 May. NFX and 83north investors did not respond to our multiple requests for comments.
Is involved in lawsuit
They are not only users who are upset with Landa. The company’s main lenders were suing.
Viola Credit and L Finance filed a treatment To the New York State Supreme Court against Landa in November 2024, accusing it of “numerous deficiencies” on loans worth more than $ 35 million expanded to the company. (Viola is also an investor in Landa through business division.)
Lenders also accused her of missing real estate tax payments that led to the forced sale of these properties, neglect of real estate and even failure to collect rents.
The trial – first mentioned With the publication of the Bisnow Real Estate Industry – says that after more than a year of effort to get Landa to honor their commitments, lenders removed Landa as director of homes and appointed an independent property manager and a restructuring head.
Following further negotiations failed, the creditors later asked the court and were granted, a ban that prevents Landa from access to bank accounts, intervening in their efforts to restructure the business and restore money they say – including revenue.
Despite the order, lenders returned to court in January 2025, claiming that Landa told tenants to send rent payments to a different bank account not covered by the decision. They discovered this while making repairs to the septic system of a property. They also accused Landa’s chief executive of trying to sell or refinance some qualities.
The court ordered Landa to explain itself. Instead, at the beginning of March, Landa asked the court to hold on to the Viola and L Finance credit, arguing that the independent director “installed illegally”.
Judge Jennifer G. Schecter was not happy. In March, he ordered both sides to find a solution “this is good for all your customers”. He refused Landa’s request for order and ordered the company to pay nearly $ 100,000. A few weeks later, Landa filed a formal match. The case is still pending.
Provocative model
Landa is just one of the many newly established businesses that have emerged in recent years offering a fractional investment in real estate. It is also obviously the only thing that has fought – especially after the rates of mortgages in 2022.
Fintor set millions of dollars before seemingly rotating to offer an “AI agent to automate financial and real -level human -level performance”. Dallas -based Nada, which offered investment products on real estate called “Cityfunds”, allowing non -accredited investors to buy the city’s stock market with just $ 250, seems to have rotated. Its website now promotes a new label: “Access to Home Equity to finance anything.”
Arrived It was probably the highest profile of the bundle-and all that seems to work actively under the same model. In May 2022, TechCrunch said it had reached $ 25 million in a round of funding in Series A, including Bezos missions, to allow people to buy shares in “just $ 100” houses. According to its website, the boot has so far been paid more than $ 13 million in dividends and interest and has 766,000 registered investors.
As for those people who invested with Landa, the future of their money seems uncertain. From May 23, Landa’s Investor Portal’s website is still redirecting a “come-back-soon” maintenance message.
