Homesearch has secured major investment from a venture capitalist firm that originally backed Zoopla.
The property data and estate agent prospecting platform, which aims to help estate agents generate new leads, has completed a £5m Series A funding round with Octopus Ventures
The London-based firm says that it will now further enrich the data available to agents and rapidly expand its product base to better embed property data into the housing market customer journey, to enhance the volume and quality of seller and landlord leads delivered to its estate agent subscribers.
Giles Ellwood, Homesearch CEO, said “We believe that information should sit at the very heart of an agent’s prospecting, marketing, and customer service and it was this vision that Octopus shared with us immediately.
“Our unique way of interpreting and processing data into usable information with straightforward tools allows estate agents to support their clients with finding their dream homes in record time. And that results in more instructions and many more satisfied clients. This major investment is a key stage in our exciting journey towards transforming the way estate agents do business.”
Uthish Ranjan, principal at Octopus Ventures, commented: “Homesearch has built a compelling product for its target customers – the underlying data is its core strength and one of the aspects of the business we are most excited about. This has come through in its performance, with the company delivering a strong period of growth over the last 18 months alongside a supportive customer base. We are excited about working with Giles and team on delivering their next stage of the company’s evolution.”
That’s impressive and congrats to the team. I can see it being successful among agents but to get the scale Octopus wants it is going to need to be bigger than just selling to the 20,000 UK agents surely? I can’t see the B:C potential product, only the B:B. What am I missing?
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This is a major win for Homesearch so huge congratulations to the team.
Whether in proptech or not, any business with happy customers, growth and recurring revenue will always be attractive to investors. If your Company meets that criteria in proptech, you’re probably even more attractive. My experience of the last 18 months shows that investors are looking for a sound foundation to build upon. Happy customers, recurring revenue etc shows (proves) you have that sound foundation.
With the current levels of turbulence in the housing market, many investors are ‘pausing’ deals in the proptech sector but the most forward thinking are not. Deals are happening regularly, albeit not all at this size.
Good work Octopus and well done again to Homesearch. Let’s see what the next 12 months brings for everybody.
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some_proptech_guy – I have seen zero sign of lack of dealflow activity and deals being done, I was up until 2am yesterday and on it again at 6am looking both at decks and advising clients on strategic plays. To me the pace is quickening, look at CoreLogic and Rob May’s Rummage4 tie up, an excellent deal for both sides.
‘CoreLogic U.K., a wholly owned subsidiary of CoreLogic®, a leading global property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider, today announced the completion of its acquisition of the property search and marketing platform Rummage4.
Rummage4 was founded in 2015 by Robert May as a Property Search Platform; a technology space that’s opened up between the property portals and agent CRM systems. Rummage4 delivers a search engine that puts agents and the homes they list at the centre of a property search, so home movers are more readily directed to the agent.
The Rummage4 acquisition will further enhance the property marketing services that CoreLogic U.K. provides nationally through its subsidiary ehouse. Rummage4 will provide estate agents with property specific consumer facing micro sites to host the rich media content that ehouse generates, including photography, floor plans, EPCs, drone, 3D virtual tours and video.
Robert May, founder of Rummage4 commented: “Those people who’ve followed our journey will have seen us innovate and try things that we believe will bring property search up to date with technology. The way consumers engage with the internet has changed and we believe this allows homebuyers and tenants to get closer to the agents who sell or let the properties they’re looking for. Joining CoreLogic will allow us to realise our aspirations and fulfil our vision for industry change.”
Ben Fillmore, Managing Director of ehouse commented: “We are delighted to add the Rummage4 product suite to the CoreLogic family, it will allow our estate agency clients to radically transform how they market their properties.
We are excited to build upon the Rummage4 product and look forward to working with Robert and our clients to maximise the potential that this acquisition brings.” And with UK having its first tech S.P.A.C announced a few weeks ago, because London (England) is seen as the top tech player in Europe, I can see only more capital pouring in to real estate vertical. It must be rembered that resi and letting is just a fraction of the plan, build, sale, let and management cycles, that tech has got its tendrils in.
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Yep – I did say that MOST forward thinking players are NOT pausing deals.
It’s great to see the market containing to grow and many congratulations to Robert also…….
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