Welcome Homes Appoints Sara Anissipour as CRO and Ivi Ahuja as Head of Strategic Partnerships

Welcome Homes, the first tech startup to solve lifestyle home building, is announcing it is welcoming Sara Anissipour as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) and Ivi Ahuja as Head of Strategic Partnerships. Sara was previously Senior Vice President, Global Sales at Pacaso and built and scaled the sales organization across US, Mexico, UK and Spain including 40+ sub markets in under one year while driving 400% annual revenue growth. Joining Welcome Homes from Realtor.com, Ivi was responsible for increasing the organization’s core partner base by 400%, and grew both revenue and lead volume by more than 125% year over year. These new hires join the fast-growing organization on the heels of its recent $29M series A raise, led by Era Ventures.

These new hires mark a continued aggressive expansion effort by Welcome Homes, which saw 500% growth in its second year of business in 2022. Both of these significant additions to the leadership team at the organization will support Welcome’s continued development as a platform for both consumer homebuyers and real estate investors.

“These are brand-new leadership roles for Welcome that Sara and Ivi are taking on, and each will be critical to the continued hockey stick growth that Welcome has experienced over the last two years,” said Alec Hartman, CEO and cofounder, Welcome Homes. “As we put ourselves in the right position for when the market reignites, being thoughtful and strategic with our sales and distribution channels will be paramount. With our eye on growth and the right people leading our organization, there’s nothing stopping us from becoming the largest homebuilder on the planet.”

Before joining Welcome, Sara Anissipour was a distinguished executive business leader with 16+ years experience building, growing and leading highly successful global revenue organizations. She was previously Senior Vice President of Global Sales at Pacaso, a property broker that buys single-family homes and sells them to consortiums of buyers. She also held executive revenue and business strategy leadership roles at Google and Zillow Group. In the role of Chief Revenue Officer, Anissipour will build out Welcome Homes’ revenue organization and be responsible for continuing the company’s aggressive growth and expansion plans.

“Welcome Homes has seen impressive growth and traction early in its journey, even without a revenue organization lead” said Sara Anissipour, Welcome Homes CRO. “My teams will build upon the company’s early stage hard work to date to help homebuyers and investors to buy and build the homes they want, where they want it, and at scale.”

Ivi Ahuja brings to bear over two decades of experience, most recently as Head of Strategic Partnerships for Realtor.com, a real estate listing site. Before Realtor.com, he was Head of M&A for Indeed.com, responsible for leading mergers & acquisitions for Recruit’s HR Technology business, which included both Indeed and Glassdoor. Ahuja also held senior roles within Mastercard and American Express focused on strategy, operations, and corporate development. As Welcome’s Vice President, Partnership, Ahuja will continue to expand the company’s reach to potential homebuyers through business development and partnership activities. He will also identify ways to drive incremental value to the customer by securing integrations with the latest technology products and services to have a turnkey experience when moving into a Welcome home, such as solar energy solutions, interior design, security monitoring, and more.

“I truly believe in Welcome Homes’ platform and its ability to democratize homebuilding,” says Ivi Ahuja, Welcome Homes’ Head of Strategic Partnerships.. “I believe unlocking strategic partnerships will help Welcome Homes continue to deliver a best-in-class home buying experience that solves every headache of the process, from choosing your lot to furnishing your guest bedroom.”

Welcome Homes was founded by the DigitalOcean (NYSE: DOCN) co-founding team, and the company has hired other real estate industry veterans from Compass and Toll Brothers. Since launching in early 2021, Welcome Homes is on pace to grow sales exponentially year-over-year in Northeast markets.

About Welcome Homes

Welcome Homes develops lifestyle-designed homes with guaranteed pricing through its in-house engineering and construction tech. The company enables customers to buy new homes with clarity and transparency in any community. It is currently available in New YorkNew JerseyConnecticutMaryland, and Pennsylvania. Welcome Homes will soon be in areas around the U.S. For more information, visit www.welcomehomes.com.