Keller Williams says strategic investment by CoreLogic owner Stone Point Capital is designed to “fuel growth,” as Christopher Czarnecki takes the helm.
AJ LaTrace2 mins
Keller Williams announced this morning a new investment from private equity firm Stone Point Capital, which will take a major ownership stake in the Austin-based real estate franchise giant.
The deal will include a change in leadership, with Christopher Czarnecki, who had served as CEO of the REIT Broadstone Net Lease, Inc. to take over from Mark Willis, who stepped down from his leadership role in January.
Gary Keller, the company's celebrated co-founder and executive chairman, will stay with Keller Williams and retain partial ownership in the company. He framed the move as an opportunity to help ensure the company's growth and continued individual agent success.
"We've built an incredible foundation and as we focus on each agent's personal development and their continual sales growth, we welcome the partnership and backing from the team at Stone Point Capital," Keller said in the announcement. Stone Point also owns CoreLogic and is an investor in other proptech companies.
"I'm excited for the future and I'm excited to be entering the most prolific writing, teaching, and coaching phase of my 48-year career in real estate," Keller added. "I love this company and I'm not going anywhere."
The partnership announcement also touches on Stone Point Capital's other investments in the real estate space and its "strong track record of partnering with winning businesses" to "help them scale and reach their full potential." Part of reaching that full potential, the announcement suggests, is a continued focus on agent marketing and branding, education and coaching, as well as data and technology.
Additionally, Keller hinted at new opportunities to reward productive agents and help the brokerage with agent attraction.
"We will also be exploring new ways to make sure top agents and franchisees who drive the growth of our business are able to share in its future success," he said.
Inman first broke the news of the investment and new CEO.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
