This week, our deal of the last 7 days goes to 6 month old estate agency innovators: YOPA.
What do they do?
London-based YOPA, a proponent of what is now being hailed prop-tech, has developed a hybrid estate agency service that allows users to post properties on its platform for a fixed fee of £780.
Making “selling homes affordable, simple and clear”, YOPA aims to break down the traditional estate agent model by enabling interaction between buyers, sellers, and agents.
“We have followed the rapid advance of the online ‘hybrid’ estate agency model over the last year” says Savills Group CEO, Jeremy Helsby. “This investment broadens the group’s access to the UK residential sector by enabling us to take an interest in the high volume segment of the market, comprising over one million transactions annually, to which Savills has had little exposure to date.”
Key players:
1.) Daniel Attia, co-founder and CEO
2.) Andrew Barclay, Director
How much did they raise?
YOPA secured £16m venture-stage equity investment on 3rd June 2016.
Who funded?
Grosvenor Hill Ventures (the investment arm of Savills plc.)
Which companies are they up against?
Purple Bricks
Founded by brothers Michael and Kenny Bruce – previously of estate agents Burchell Edwards – Purple Bricks has been awarded a host of high growth plaudits. Coming first in Startups 100 List 2015, the estate agent was also shortlisted for Bloomberg Business Innovators 2016 earlier this year.
We took a closer look at Purple Bricks in our recent blog Which high growth companies made it to IPO?. The Leeds-based online estate agent IPO’d in December, raising £25m on AIM.
eMoov
Essex-based eMoov is an online estate agency. The platform promises a ‘better estate agency service…at a fraction of the cost’.
eMoov has completed 5 equity fundraisings to date, amounting to £5m. In 2015, eMoov was listed as one of 21 ‘Global Disrupters’ by the Financial Times – ranking alongside Tesla, Uber, and Netflix.
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