Roofstock, a single-family rental online investment platform, has raised $240M in a Series E round led by SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 as investors continue piling into the single-family rental market.

The Oakland company is now valued at $1.94B, three times its previous valuation of $600M, according to The Real Deal. Roofstock most recently raised $50M in a January 2020 Series D round and almost tripled its revenue in 2021, facilitating $2.5B in single-family rental deals, The Real Deal reported.

In addition to SoftBank, Kohla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Bain Capital Ventures also contributed to the funding round. Roofstock plans to double its employee base this year and go after targeted mergers and acquisitions, it said. While co-founder and CEO Gary Beasley said Roofstock is positioning itself to go public, that is unlikely to happen in the near future.

"Public is kind of a four-letter word these days, I think," he told The Real Deal.

Roofstock focuses on houses priced around $150K to $400K, which account for 70% of its purchases in the country overall. The company launched a fractionalization service last year, in which investors can contribute small amounts, starting at $5K, and has increased its use of algorithm-based homebuying, focusing on buying properties with renters in place to mitigate risk.

Single-family rental units are proving a popular option for investment amid surging rents nationwide and more real estate investors snatching up homes. Over 18% of U.S. home sales were from real estate investors in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to Redfin data cited by The Real Deal.

Investment in single-family rentals comes from large corporations, local firms and individuals, Bisnow reported previously, with firms like JPMorgan Chase and Blackstone playing heavily in the industry.

“While slowing home price appreciation could help gradually balance demand for the rental market, rent prices will likely remain strong throughout the year,” a February CoreLogic report said.