Opendoor to shut India operations, relocate roles to US; around 250 positions affected

Real estate technology firm and US-based homebuying platform Opendoor is winding down its India operations and relocating related functions to the United States.

The move affects nearly 250 employees in the country.

In a memo to employees, Opendoor Chief Executive Officer Kaz Nejatian said the company has begun saying goodbye to its colleagues in India as it brings operational work closer to its American customers.

"Our customers are in America, and the operational work we do for them is best done close to them," Nejatian said in the note, which he later shared on social media platform X.

The company said that when it launched "Opendoor 2.0" a few months ago, it had nearly 250 employees in India.

Over the past few months, some of those roles had already been relocated to the US, and the company is now finalising the process of winding down its India-based operations.

The decision affects all India-based employees, although a small subset of team members will remain temporarily to complete the transition of key workstreams, according to the note.

Nejatian said the move was not a reflection of the quality of work performed by the India team.

"Our colleagues in India are great people, and we recommend them to anyone hiring," he said.

The CEO said Opendoor had historically built a large team in India to handle manual workflows across fragmented systems.

However, as the company unified its systems and hired smaller AI-native customer-facing teams across the US, it determined that operational work should be carried out closer to customers.

"After today, Opendoor 2.0 will be a much smaller company by headcount, but a much larger company by impact," Nejatian said.

The company said it would provide affected employees with transition packages, including severance benefits, outplacement services and other support resources.

Opendoor operates an online platform that enables homeowners in the United States to buy and sell homes through a digital process.

The company, regarded as the largest "iBuyer" in the US, uses automated valuation models and artificial intelligence tools to generate cash offers for homes, purchases properties directly from sellers, undertakes repairs and renovations, and subsequently resells them in the market.

The company did not disclose the financial impact of the restructuring or a timeline for completing the closure of its India operations.