Minneapolis app maker HomeSpotter acquired by Ontario tech firm

Over the last 11 years, Twin Cities entrepreneur Aaron Kardell has built HomeSpotter, his Minneapolis software company, into a business of more than 45 employees and 450,000 users across North America.

HomeSpotter's digital applications assist residential real estate agents and brokers in finding homes for buyers. The company serves four of the largest real estate brokerages in the U.S., and its software is integrated with more than 300 multiple listing services (MLS).

While the company is successful, Kardell said he wanted to bring other services to market but couldn't because HomeSpotter didn't have the data.

On Tuesday, HomeSpotter announced it had been acquired by Lone Wolf Technologies, a tech company based both in Ontario and Dallas that serves the real estate industry.

The partnership creates an opportunity for HomeSpotter to not only develop those new services to help agents track opportunities and sales but also build a company positioned to be a market leader.

"There's a lot we're going to be able to do together in ways that we couldn't do independently," Kardell said. "Lone Wolf has built some really great products across the entire life cycle of the transaction, particularly back office, and there's a lot that we've wanted to do for a while. We don't have all the data Lone Wolf has, and the ability to better help our agents track things all the way through the transaction is pretty exciting."

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, nor were each company's revenue. Kardell will remain with the company in a role that has yet to be disclosed, he said.

Lone Wolf Technologies is used by over 1.5  million agents and 1,000 MLSs and associations across North America. The addition of HomeSpotter gives the company a strong foothold in the growing multibillion-dollar market for software focused on real estate transactions, CEO Jimmy Kelly said.

"We were missing fundamental components on the front end, which is essentially pre-transaction, and had done considerable market research on great technologies that help advertise, market and generate leads for agents, and HomeSpotter consistently was one of the top in the space," Kelly said.

In addition to investing in HomeSpotter's open house and showings platform, called Spacio, which the company acquired in early 2019, Lone Wolf Technologies also wants to invest in acquiring talent from the Minneapolis area, Kelly said.

"It's a good place to find talent," Kelly said. "We've been really impressed with the folks we've met and the product Aaron has built, and the culture will make us want to look more about investing in the area."

Several Minnesota investors have backed HomeSpotter, including Rob Weber of Great North Ventures, Dave Dalvey of Brightstone Venture Capital, Mike Bollinger and Ed Cannon, Kardell said.