Start-ups & Principal Risk

Venture backed businesses are increasingly pivoting towards taking more principal risk and moving away from acting as brokers.
Latest example is Leavy, an Airbnb copy-cat, who are guaranteeing payments for your apartment holiday rental upfront.
The real estate sector has seen this already – with companies offering to buy your home directly.
As is discussed here this type of model leads to better margins in good times, but is a lot riskier.
It feels like late cycle behaviour.