The idea of becoming a real estate investor at $5 seems too good to be true.
For many of Landa's users, this is a prophet company that guarantees this.
Landa emerged from stealth in August 2022, announcing a total of $33 million in funding and pledged to help everyday Americans get residential real estate investments through fractional stocks.
CEO Yishai Cohen and former CTO Amit Assaraf founded Landa in 2019 to make real estate investments more inclusive. The only requirement for the app is that the user is at least 18 years of age and is a U.S. resident. They can start investing for just $5 and buy and sell stocks and see real-time updates of their properties from the Landa app. (Assaraf left the company in December 2023, according to his LinkedIn profile. He did not respond to a request for comment.)
Today, Landa's investment portal is closed and its applications are not working. Users claim they are unable to obtain funds and have not received dividends for months. The startup is involved in lawsuits, including lawsuits by its early venture capitalist Viola.
An early user told TechCrunch that Landa no longer paid dividends to his stock in January. He said they “posed the question” when he asked Landa.
"I emailed them over and over again and just got the deflected answer, nothing real," the user said. "And then a few months later, the app became unusable. It won't open."
The user then asked him if he could delete the account he opened in 2021 and sell the stock. But he found that Landa weakened his ability to sell stocks.
"They essentially freeze my funds and just shut down the app," the user said. "Where is the money? Why don't they return it to me?"
More than 130 complaints have been filed with Landa to the Better Business Bureau, with dozens of people reverberating similar charges. For example, on May 1, a user who filed a complaint shared that they invested more than $8,000 through Landa and stopped receiving dividends last fall. Users said Landa Customer Service responded to their emails, saying the company was "working".
In mid-April, when TechCrunch asked Landa questions, including the condition of its collapse site and whether the company itself was closed, CEO Cohen said: "Of course not. The site will be backed up."
When asked why the app doesn't work and why users didn't receive dividends in a few months, Cohen's brief reply still seemed to refer to the site and blamed the server: "It has nothing to do with dividends. It comes from our server. We're on top. We're on top."
After further stimulation, Cohen shared the following statement on April 18: "We are aware of the issues that currently affect our platform and products and want to ensure that all investors are actively working to restore full functionality as soon as possible. We have been informing all updates through all updates, including server access issues, including ongoing support from our investors and the community inhabited, and maintaining a constant vision to enable everyone to grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp the distance so that everyone can grasp
Cohen did not respond to our May 20 status update request. Investors NFX and 83North did not respond to our multiple requests for comment.
Not only users who are upset about Landa. The company's main lender is suing.
Viola Credit and L Finance filed a lawsuit against Landa in the New York Supreme Court in November 2024, accusing it of “numerous defaults” and extending it to the company with a loan of more than $35 million. (Viola is also an investor through its risk sector.)
The lender also accused it of lack of property taxes, resulting in forced sale of the properties, neglecting property and not even collecting rent.
The lawsuit (first reported by real estate industry publication Bisnow) noted that more than a year after trying to get Landa to fulfill its commitment, the lender removed Landa to its home manager and appointed an independent property manager and a chief restructuring officer.
After further negotiations failed, creditors then solicited courts and received a grant, prohibiting Landa from accessing bank accounts, interfering with their attempts to reorganize their business and recovering what they said, including proceeds from real estate sales.
Despite the injunction, the lender returned to court in January 2025, claiming Landa told the tenant to pay the rent to other bank accounts not covered by the ruling. They discovered this while repairing a property's septic tank system. They also accuse Landa's CEO of trying to sell or refinance some properties.
The court ordered Landa to explain herself. Instead, in early March, Landa asked the court to restrict Viola Credit and L Finance, claiming that the independent manager was "illegal installation".
Judge Jennifer G. Schecter was upset. In March, she ordered both parties to find a solution, “good for all your customers.” She denied the ban requested by Landa and ordered the company to pay nearly $100,000. A few weeks later, Landa launched a formal counterattack. The case is still waiting.
Landa is just one of several startups that have been offered in recent years, offering some real estate investments. Obviously, this is not the only one struggling, especially after mortgage rates began to soar in 2022.
Leaders raised millions of dollars and then seemed to spin “agents with human-level performance for automated finance and real estate operations.” Dallas-based NADA offers index-like real estate investment products, called "City-City-Bunds," allowing unauthorized investors to buy into the city's home stock market for prices as low as $250, which also seems important. Now, its website promotes a new tagline: “Access home equity to fund anything.”
Arrival is perhaps the highest of the bondage, perhaps the only one who actively runs under the same model. In May 2022, TechCrunch reported that the Arrival A raised $25 million, including Bezos Expeditions, to allow people to buy stocks for single-family rents, with “as low as $100.” According to its website, the startup has paid more than $13 million in dividends and interest so far and has 766,000 registered investors.
As for those who invest from Landa, the future of their money seems uncertain. As of May 23, Landa's investor portal will still be redirected to "avoid" maintenance information.