The idea of becoming an investor of real estate for only $ 5 could appear too good to be real.
And for many Landa users, the company Proptech, which just promised it – it was.
Landa He appeared with Stealth in August 2022, announcing a total of 33 million dollars of financing and a commitment to help on a regular basis Americans in accessing investment in housing through the fractional shares.
CEO of Yishai Cohen I former CTO Amit Assaraf founded Landy in 2019 to increase real estate investments. The only application requirements was that users are over 18 years old and US residents. They could start investing with just $ 5, buy and sell shares, in addition to see updates in real time of their real estate from the Landa application. (According to his LinkedIn Assaraf, he left the company in December 2023. profile. Did not answer the requests for comment.)
Today, the website of the Landa investment portal is reduced and its application is inoperable. Users say they can’t access their funds and have not received dividends for months. The startup is involved in court disputes, including a lawsuit from an early investor’s investor.
One of the early users told Techcrunch that Landa stopped paying him dividends at his actions in January. When he asked Landa about it, they “pushed the question,” he said.
“I have sent them E -Mail about it many times and just rejected the answers, nothing real,” said the user. “Then a few months later the application became useless. It did not open.”
The user then asked if he could delete his account, which he opened in 2021 and sell shares. But he said Landa turned off her ability to sell shares.
“Basically, they will freeze me from my funds and just closed the application,” said the user. “Where is the money? Why don’t they return me?”
Over 130 complaints They were submitted against Landa to Better Business Bureau, and dozens of individuals repeated similar allegations. For example, on May 1, one user who submitted such criticism They made available that they have invested over USD 8,000 via Landa and stopped receiving dividends last autumn. The user said that Landa’s customer support responded to their e -mile, saying that the company “is working on it”.
In mid-April, when Techcrunch asked Landy about the problem-in this status of her fallen site and whether the company itself closed-ceo cohen said: “Of course not. The site will not be.”
Asked why the application had not worked and why users have not received dividends for months, the concise answer of Cohen still seemed to refer to the website, blaming the servers: “It is unrelated to dividends. It comes from our servers. We are on it.”
After further creation of Cohen on April 18, he shared the following statement: “We are aware of the problems currently affecting our platform and product, and we would like to provide all investors that we are actively working on restoring full functionality as soon as possible. We provide investors with investing through all updates.
Cohen didn’t answer our request to update the status on May 20. Investors NFX and 83North have not responded to our many applications for comment.
Entangled in a lawsuit
Not only users are nervous Landa. The essential lenders are suing.
Viola Credit and L Finance complex lawsuit In the Supreme Court of New York against Landa in November 2024, accusing him of “numerous non -performance of liabilities” of a loan value over $ 35 million, which they prolonged to the company. (Viola is also an investor in Landa through the project branch).
Lenders also accused him of a lack of tax payments that led to the forced sale of those properties, neglect of real estate, and not even collecting rent.
Lawsuit – First reported By the publication of the Bisnow real estate industry – he states that after greater than a 12 months attempts to prompt Landa to honor their obligations, lenders removed Landy as a house manager and appointed an independent real estate manager and restructuring director.
After further negotiations, the creditors asked the court for a court and were issued, an order blocking Landa access to bank accounts, disturbing their attempts to restructure the company and recuperate money that they think are due – including revenues from the sale of real estate.
Despite the lenders’ order, they returned to court in January 2025, claiming that Landa told the tenants to send rent payments to one other checking account, which are not covered by the decision. They discovered this during the repair of the septic system of one property. They also accused the general director of Landa of an attempt to sell or refinance some properties.
The Tribunal ordered Landa to explain. Instead, at the starting of March, Landa asked the court to refrain from Viola Credit and L Finance, claiming that the independent manager was “installed unlawfully”.
Judge Jennifer G. Schecter was not completely happy. In March, she told each side to find a solution “it’s good for all your clients.” She refused Landa’s request for an order and ordered the company to pay almost 100,000 USD. A few weeks later, Landa laid a formal meter. The case is still pending.
Difficult model
Landa is only one of several startups that have appeared in recent years, offering fractional real estate investments. Apparently it is not the only one who fought – especially after rates of interest began to grow in 2022.
The finor raised tens of millions of dollars before he apparently turned to offer “AI agent to automate finance and real estate with a human level.” Nada with its registered office in Dallas, which offered index investment products called “CityFunds”, enabling investors not a major for the purchase of their very own capital on the city market with just USD 250, also turned. His website now promotes a recent slogan: “Get access to Home Equity to finance everything.”
Arrived Perhaps it was the highest profile of the group-and the only one that seems to be energetic in the same model. In May 2022, Techcrunch announced that $ 25 million in the A -Series financing round had arrived, including the Bezos expedition, to allow people to buy shares in single -family rental with “only $ 100”. According to the website, Startup has paid over $ 13 million dividends and interest and has 766,000 registered investors.
As for individuals who have invested in landy, the way forward for their money seems uncertain. From May 23, the Landy’s Investor website is still redirecting to the “upcoming” maintenance message.