citybiz+ Legacy Capital Ventures, Betaworks Join $7M Seed Round for Real Estate Startup Digs

Legacy Capital Ventures, a Boston-based real estate investor and developer, and Oregon Venture Fund have co-led a $7 million seed round for Digs, which has developed an AI-based collaboration platform for home builders and homeowners.

Other participants include prior investors Betaworks, a New York firm whose past bets include Giphy (acquired by Meta) and Tweetdeck (acquired by Twitter); Fuse and Flying Fish Partners (both Seattle, Wash.); Cascade Seed Fund (Bend, Ore.), and Deepwater Asset Management (Minneapolis). So far, Vancouver, Wash.-based Digs has raised $14 million.

“It’s fantastic to have proven investors like OVF and Legacy lead our seed round and partner in helping us navigate all the challenges accompanying rapid growth,” said Digs co-founder and CEO Ryan Fink, who has over 30 patents and significant experience in AI and augmented reality.

Digs, which is available in all 50 U.S. states and Canada, helps builders and homeowners build a so-called “digital twin” ­— enabling homeowners to easily manage and improve their homes through their construction and after. For example, it makes it easier to organize documents, and collaborate on plans and improvements. Digs’ platform also helps suppliers and contractors step.

Together with the funding, Digs also named Jef Holove, former CEO of ecommerce firm Drop, as chief operating officer. Drop was acquired by Corsair in 2023. Holove also served as the COO of Streem, Fink’s previous augmented-reality startup (acquired by Frontdoor). Digs plans to use the new funds to accelerate the launch of its marketplace, with Holove overseeing its development.

Real Estate Focus

Legacy Capital Ventures, an “investment fund with a balanced long and short-term portfolio,” is led by four managing partners — Bryan Rich, Bryan Rich, Jr., Anthony Rich and John Kneeland. It has co-founded more than 10 real estate companies, and developed over 1.5 million square feet of real estate. It makes early-state investments as well as private equity investments.

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“We created the fund to accelerate our pre-existing investment strategies, expand our network power, share access to our deals, and develop long-term aligned interests with our partners,” the firm says on its website. The managing partners represent a significant portion of the capital invested.

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Betaworks was founded by John Borthwick, who previously oversaw alliances and technology strategy at Time Warner. He was also CEO of Fotolog, one of the first social photo-sharing sites. Borthwick holds an MBA from Wharton and a BA in Economics from Wesleyan University.

Besides listing Giphy, Dots, bitly, Tweetdeck, and Chartbeat, the firm says its “investments and accelerated companies” include Twitter, Tumblr, Kickstarter, Medium, Anchor, Gimlet, Hugging Face, RecRoom, Superplastic, and XMTP.