Overview
Vecindario tried to turn the fragmented purchase of a new home in Latin America into one guided transaction. The Medellín company began with lead generation for developers, added sales execution and mortgage support, and later built software for the same industry. Felipe Restrepo and Camilo Ruiz founded it in 2019 after more than a decade running Habla Creativo, their real-estate marketing agency. Vecindario joined Y Combinator's Winter 2022 batch.[1]
The model produced remarkable gross volume. By July 2023, Vecindario said it had sold more than 4,500 homes and processed over COP 1 trillion in transactions. Restrepo later put the peak at more than 260 apartments per month, 17 cities, weekly growth above 3%, and more than 170 people who worked on the company.[2][3]
That volume concealed a weak cash position. Vecindario expanded into mortgages, new cities, subscriptions, memberships, insurance, rentals, and eventually SaaS. When Colombia's housing market contracted, more than 15% of its partner projects failed, according to Restrepo. Unpaid invoices stretched past 24 months. Vecindario carried the sales operation while its developer customers controlled when, or whether, it got paid.
The company closed in early 2025. High interest rates and a housing slump were the trigger; overexpansion and customer concentration made them fatal. The final SaaS product had sales in seven countries, but it reached the market after the team had spent its cash and exhausted its ability to pivot.[3]
Founding Story
Restrepo and Ruiz were childhood friends before they were co-founders. Restrepo studied business at Universidad EAFIT and started small ventures while still in school. Ruiz trained as a graphic designer and later completed a master's degree in user-experience and interface design. The pair built Habla Creativo, a digital agency that came to specialize in Colombia's largest homebuilders.[2][4]
Agency work exposed the gap that became Vecindario. Developers could attract prospective buyers online, but qualification, advice, unit selection, mortgage preparation, and closing still passed through separate people and systems. Buyers faced a large financial decision with little guidance. Developers lost leads between marketing and the sales room.
Vecindario first sold qualified leads. It then took on more of the transaction, moving from marketing into the sale of new homes. A 2022 description laid out the flow: a buyer opened an account, completed a financial diagnostic, and was assigned a consultant for free remote or in-person advice. The developer received a qualified customer and used Vecindario's technology and sales team to close.[4]
The pandemic accelerated the shift online. Univision reported that Vecindario grew from two people to 50 while helping Colombians, including people living in the United States, buy homes online. The company linked diaspora demand with new-home inventory back in Colombia.[5]
YC gave the company a larger frame. Its batch page described a unified online experience for selling property and approving mortgages, with a claim that the process was six times faster. Restrepo and Ruiz wanted the software to connect buyer behavior with the commercial work of developers around the world.[1][2]
Timeline
- 2019: Restrepo and Ruiz found Vecindario in Medellín after operating Habla Creativo.[1]
- 2020–2021: The pandemic moves more of the buying process online; the team grows from two to 50 and begins connecting U.S.-based Colombians with property at home.[5]
- Winter 2022: Vecindario joins Y Combinator and presents an online property-and-mortgage experience for Latin American developers.[1]
- July 2023: Vecindario reports more than 4,500 homes sold and COP 1 trillion in transactions over four years.[2]
- 2023–2024: Colombia's new-home market contracts, partner projects fail, and customer invoices go unpaid. Vecindario tries subscriptions, memberships, insurance, rentals, new markets, and a SaaS product.[3]
- January 2025: Restrepo gives a long interview about closing the company and dismissing roughly 150 employees.[6]
- February 2025: Restrepo publicly announces that Vecindario has closed and provides an email for people affected by the wind-down.[3]
What They Built
Vecindario's first product was a managed sales funnel for new developments. Content and paid marketing attracted a prospective buyer. A financial diagnostic established budget and readiness. A consultant matched the person with a project, explained the down payment, and moved the deal toward reservation and mortgage approval. Developers bought access to qualified demand and outsourced part of the sales process.
The company also operated a consumer marketplace. Its 2019 blog promoted specific developments with unit sizes, reservation amounts, down-payment schedules, amenities, and developer history. The buyer could compare a project, ask for advice, and continue into a Vecindario account.[7]
Mortgage support brought Vecindario closer to the financial close. YC described property sales and mortgage approval as one online journey. This was useful because a developer's reservation did not become dependable revenue until the buyer could assemble the down payment, qualify for credit, and sign. The same expansion also added lender coordination and more operational work to every transaction.
Near the end, Vecindario tried to extract its process knowledge into SaaS. Restrepo said the team built the product quickly and sold it in seven countries. Public sources do not identify the product name, customers, price, retention, or feature set. That gap prevents a fair judgment of its product quality. The timing is clearer: it sold into an industry already under strain, after the company had used most of its cash.[3]
Market Position
Target Customers
Vecindario served two groups. Homebuilders and real-estate developers paid for qualified demand, sales work, technology, or some combination of the three. Buyers used the service without paying for advice. The early consumer focus was Colombian households buying new homes, including expatriates purchasing from the United States.
The developer customer made the product efficient and risky. One relationship could supply hundreds of units and enough commission value to fund a large sales team. It could also concentrate receivables in a project whose own cash depended on reservations, subsidies, construction finance, and mortgage approvals.
Market Size
Vecindario's COP 1 trillion in transaction volume shows that a regional operator could touch substantial property value. It does not reveal Vecindario's revenue or cash collection. No public source gives the company's take rate, annual revenue, gross margin, burn, or total funding.
The addressable market also moved with credit conditions. Banco de la República raised its policy rate from 1.75% in September 2021 to 13.25% in April 2023.[8] Camacol measured 2023 declines of 45.3% in new-home sales, 44.4% in launches, and 24% in starts. Mortgage costs rose as the number of available projects and qualified buyers fell.[9]
The market had not settled by 2026. Camacol counted 173,756 new-home sales in the twelve months through February, up 11.7%, while sales in the first two months of the year fell 11% and construction starts fell 40.7%.[13] The central bank's policy rate stood at 12% in August.[14]
Competition
Vecindario competed with listing portals, developers' own sales rooms, real-estate brokers, mortgage advisers, bank channels, and Colombian proptech companies such as La Haus and Habi. Each handled part of the journey. Vecindario's pitch was continuity: one buyer record could move from interest through project selection and credit.
By 2026, the developer-software category had grown crowded. Desarrollo Simple sells a project-specific CRM with inventory, sales pipelines, follow-up, and risk alerts. Simplia connects CRM, buyer-risk analysis, project finance, and construction schedules.[10][11] A new entrant cannot win with another broad dashboard. It needs a narrower job and proof that it prevents lost reservations or bad receivables.
Business Model
The company began by selling leads, then took responsibility for selling homes. Public reporting describes developers as the paying customer and buyers as recipients of free advice, but it does not disclose whether Vecindario charged per lead, per closed sale, a project retainer, or a mix. Restrepo's account of unpaid invoices suggests that a material share of revenue was billed to developers after operational work had already been done.
This created an unfavorable cash cycle. Vecindario paid salaries, marketing, and sales costs now; a developer could pay months later. As the company opened 17 cities and added mortgages, it increased fixed costs and working capital before it had collected earlier invoices. Gross transaction volume looked strong even as cash weakened.
YC and Rockstart were named investors. Restrepo's 2025 interview refers to raising millions in capital, but no reliable public source found for this report gives a total round size, valuation, investor ownership, or remaining cash at closure.[6]
Traction
Vecindario's best verified results came from its own operating claims, repeated in founder interviews. It sold more than 4,500 units over four years and surpassed COP 1 trillion in transaction value. At peak pace it sold more than 260 apartments a month. Restrepo reported weekly growth above 3%, activity in 17 cities, and some SaaS sales across seven countries.[2][3]
Team size is another signal of scale. YC lists 87 employees, while Restrepo thanked more than 170 people who worked on the company and the closure interview describes about 150 dismissals. These figures likely refer to different dates or employment definitions. They still show that Vecindario became a large operator, not a small software team.
Post-Mortem
Volume outran cash collection
Vecindario measured progress in apartments and transaction value, while its bills were paid in cash. That distinction became decisive. A COP 300 million apartment contributed COP 300 million to gross transaction volume; Vecindario received only its fee, and even that amount might remain a receivable.
Restrepo said more than 15% of the projects the company worked with failed. Some invoices went unpaid and others stretched beyond 24 months. A large sales operation had therefore become an unsecured lender to developers during a housing downturn. The company could report rapid growth and still run out of money.[3]
Expansion multiplied one sector bet
The move from leads to sales made sense: Vecindario knew buyer acquisition and could earn more by closing. Mortgages could improve conversion. More cities offered more inventory. Each step increased the portion of the transaction the company could influence.
Together, those steps concentrated the company in the same housing cycle. Seventeen cities did not diversify away from Colombian developers, buyer credit, or construction schedules. Mortgages tied conversion more closely to interest rates. New products added teams and management demands while receivables were aging.
Restrepo's verdict was direct: “Nos expandimos demasiado y demasiado rápido.” The post lists subscriptions, memberships, insurance, new markets, rentals, and SaaS among the attempted responses. Those were searches for a new economic engine after the original one had already lost liquidity.
The housing crash was a trigger with measurable force
The macro shock was severe. Colombia's policy rate rose by 11.5 percentage points in nineteen months. Camacol's 45.3% drop in 2023 new-home sales reduced the pool of viable buyers and the cash available to developers. Higher rates also made mortgage qualification harder and increased cancellations. A company paid by projects and closings could not avoid that exposure.
A focused, prepaid software product might have survived the same market, though it would have been a smaller company. A well-capitalized marketplace with strict credit limits might also have endured. Vecindario combined a labor-heavy operating model, delayed payment, rapid hiring, and one cyclical customer base. The downturn exposed those choices.
SaaS came after the option value was gone
The late software product reached customers in seven countries, evidence that the team's knowledge could travel without local sales offices. Yet it targeted real-estate companies during the same crisis and arrived after cash, attention, and founder health were depleted. Restrepo wrote, “Nos tocó salvar la vida ya que la empresa no la logramos salvar.”[3]
That admission separates a product pivot from a financing reset. Software can lower marginal delivery cost, but it cannot erase old receivables, severance, leases, or a large payroll fast enough. By the time Vecindario chose the lighter model, it lacked runway for adoption and renewal data to compound.
Key Lessons
- Gross volume can hide a cash shortage. Vecindario crossed COP 1 trillion in property transactions while developer invoices aged past two years. Marketplaces need collection and counterparty-risk metrics beside sales volume.
- Adjacent products can deepen the same exposure. Mortgages, new cities, insurance, and rentals all depended on the health of the new-home market. Product breadth did not create economic diversification.
- Service work made the early product credible. Consultants, diagnostics, and sales execution helped thousands of buyers finish a complicated purchase. The work also made growth depend on headcount and receivables.
- A lower-cost model needs runway. Vecindario found SaaS demand in seven countries, but the shift came after cash and founder capacity were spent. A pivot cannot refinance yesterday's operating model by itself.
Sources
- Y Combinator: Vecindario
- El Espectador: Los emprendedores que buscan que usted compre su casa totalmente en línea
- Felipe Restrepo: Cerramos Vecindario
- Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana: Un emprendimiento que construye Vecindario
- Univision: Hispano crea negocio millonario que permite comprar casas por internet
- Dinstinto: Vecindario, de vender $1 billón al golpe más duro de su vida
- Vecindario blog: ¿Vivir Medellín y desde un precio único?
- Banco de la República: Monetary Policy Report, April 2023
- Camacol: Tendencias de la Construcción 27
- Desarrollo Simple: CRM inmobiliario para constructoras
- Simplia: Software para constructoras e inmobiliarias
- Techla Media: Vecindario anuncia el cierre de sus operaciones
- Camacol: Indicadores de la actividad edificadora, March 2026
- Banco de la República: Current monetary policy rate