{"id":248948,"date":"2026-08-05T06:47:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T06:47:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/evertise.net\/?p=135809"},"modified":"2026-08-05T06:47:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T06:47:48","slug":"duckfunds-fast-emd-funding-fuels-cres-2026-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2026\/08\/05\/duckfunds-fast-emd-funding-fuels-cres-2026-comeback\/","title":{"rendered":"Duckfund\u2019s Fast EMD Funding Fuels CRE\u2019s 2026 Comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Over the past year, Duckfund has supported more than $1.5 billion in acquisitions, achieved a 65% client retention rate, and enabled sponsors to execute three to five concurrent transactions, typically valued between $10 million and $50 million.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">NEW YORK, NY &#8211; <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.duckfund.com\/\"  rel=\"noopener\"><b>Duckfund<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a NY-based <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.duckfund.com\/blogs-re\/emd-lending\"  rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">earnest money deposit (EMD) financing platform<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, is emerging as the core deal-flow infrastructure for serial CRE sponsors, with growth figures that position it at the center of an expected market recovery.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Three years ago, the typical Duckfund sponsor was closing one deal a year. Today, the <\/span><b>platform&#8217;s fastest-growing clients are running three to five CRE acquisitions simultaneously <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2013 at $10 million to $50 million each \u2013 using Duckfund&#8217;s EMD financing as a standing line of acquisition capital, rather than a one-time funding solution.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">With a 65% sponsor retention rate and $1.5 billion in CRE acquisitions financed the past year, Duckfund has become the operational layer that serial sponsors build their entire deal pipeline around.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>From \u201cwait-and-see\u201d to \u201cready-to-move\u201d<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">After a slow 2025 that prompted many sponsors to remain in \u201cwait-and-see\u201d mode, investors are underwriting in greater volume. US commercial real estate (CRE) sponsors are positioning themselves amid a predicted market rise of 16% in 2026.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">An essential part of this is finding a financing partner that moves quickly when the right opportunity arises. Growth-minded investors are finding that in Duckfund. Its fast and flexible model helps them scale their pipelines by signing multiple PSAs at once and opening up a wider funding funnel, without freezing their operating capital in escrow.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>\u201cWe expect the market to be reborn soon,\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> says Anna Kogan, Founder and CEO of Duckfund. \u201cDuckfund has built an instrument that ensures investors have access to capital to choose the real estate they really want to buy \u2013 and to tie up deals.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Easing the bottleneck<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Larger deposit demands and longer escrow periods have made earnest money deposits a major bottleneck in CRE deals, with sponsors finding their working capital tied up at a critical point.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In a competitive market, an EMD is locked into <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.duckfund.com\/blogs-re\/is-earnest-money-refundable\"  rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">escrow for up to 90 days before going hard<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. These funds are then unavailable for due diligence funds, soft costs, or the next LOI.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Duckfund\u2019s<\/span><b> refundable deposits, approved in 24 hours and funded in 48<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, are designed to bridge this gap. Sponsors pay fees as LP soft costs, which are passed through at closing, and do not need to find collateral to make the deal work.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For investors running multiple deals, this trapped capital is often the difference between chasing a single opportunity and pursuing many.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Inside a recent deal<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">One Duckfund client, Bob Clippinger, a multifamily and light-reconstruction sponsor, came in with a familiar problem: a healthy pipeline and not enough liquidity to chase it. Earnest money alone was set to tie up close to a million dollars in escrow at any given time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">With Duckfund, his deposit costs moved into the partnership as soft costs, meaning he could <\/span><b>free up more capital to underwrite more deals<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and bring partners in just for the ones that closed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201c(Duckfund\u2019s solution) is an opportunity for people to keep their balance sheet where it\u2019s at and utilize their money,\u201d Clippinger says. \u201cIt keeps (for example) half a million dollars in the bank so your lender can see you have the reserves you need for their deal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The same liquidity problem that constrains seasoned sponsors hits hardest at the smaller end of the market, which is where Duckfund is now turning its attention.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>A program for affordable housing developers<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As well as its core CRE business, Duckfund has also recently finalized a partnership with Yoke Management Partners to<\/span><b> launch a dedicated EMD financing program for affordable and workforce housing developers.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The focus is to help small, emerging, and minority-led businesses complete deals that they are normally priced out of due to high deposits. Starting in the DMV region, the program will support various asset types, including NOAH, workforce housing, LIHTC and tax-credit projects, and mission-driven multifamily assets.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cAccess to capital at the right moment is what separates a deal that gets done from a deal that gets lost,\u201d says Chris Grant, Founder and Managing Partner, Yoke Management Partners. \u201cThis partnership is about closing that gap for affordable housing developers.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Full details of the Duckfund x Yoke program will be announced in a separate release.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">About Duckfund<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Duckfund was launched in 2023 in New York to finance earnest money deposits in commercial real estate. Backed by a $100M credit facility of institutional funds, the platform funds refundable deposits from $25,000 to $3 million in 48 hours, with no collateral required, so sponsors can fund multiple projects at once while keeping their personal capital free. To learn more, visit<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/duckfund.com\/\"  rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/duckfund.com<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">About Yoke Management Partners<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yoke Management Partners is an affordable and workforce housing investment, acquisition, renovation, and asset management firm focused on balancing preservation with progress and profits with purpose. To learn more, visit <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/yokepartners.com\/\"  rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/yokepartners.com\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Contact Details:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Business: Duckfund<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Contact name: Anna Kogan &#8211; CEO and Founder<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Email: anna.kogan@duckfund.com<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Phone: +1 833 3664880<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Country: United States<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Website: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.duckfund.com\/\"  rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/www.duckfund.com\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the past year, Duckfund has supported more than $1.5 billion in acquisitions, achieved a 65% client retention rate, and enabled sponsors to execute three to five concurrent transactions, typically valued between $10 million and $50 million. NEW YORK, NY \u2013 Duckfund, a NY-based earnest money deposit (EMD) financing platform, is emerging as the core [\u2026] <a href=\"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2026\/08\/05\/duckfunds-fast-emd-funding-fuels-cres-2026-comeback\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":271,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-248948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ips"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Duckfund\u2019s Fast EMD Funding Fuels CRE\u2019s 2026 Comeback - Business<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2026\/08\/05\/duckfunds-fast-emd-funding-fuels-cres-2026-comeback\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Duckfund\u2019s Fast EMD Funding Fuels CRE\u2019s 2026 Comeback - Business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Over the past year, Duckfund has supported more than $1.5 billion in acquisitions, achieved a 65% client retention rate, and enabled sponsors to execute three to five concurrent transactions, typically valued between $10 million and $50 million. 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