Two-year-old London-based proptech company Virtual Walkthrough has been acquired by California-based virtual reality giant Matterport as part of its global expansion.

It is said to be the first time a British proptech firm has been sold into American hands.

Virtual Walkthrough spent a few years developing its technology before launching and was recently featured at the Future Property Tech conference, with all the attendees able to browse the conference from their mobile devices.

Matterport, only slightly older having been founded in 2011, has received a reported $56m of financial backing from over 16 venture capital investors in the US.

Both companies provide property companies with visual aids for marketing – what they call “immersive media” – in the form of 360-degree online virtual tours as well as floor plans, photographs and videos.

At the time of the sale, Virtual Walkthrough claimed more than 200 UK clients including industry heavyweights CBRE, Winkworths and even Standard Life, which was in the news last week for shutting its commercial property funds in the wake of Brexit.

Virtual Walkthrough co-founder James Morris-Manuel was at pains to share the credit with the wider industry, saying that this deal was “a ringing endorsement of the fast-growing UK proptech scene”.

He quoted research by Nabarro showing that “81% of property professionals” believe that over the next ten years virtual reality will change everything from development planning to marketing property.

Eye spoke to Morris-Manuel on the eve of the transaction to find out what it meant for him personally. He had this to say: “I’ll of course be staying on with the business as sales director for EMEA. All the staff are also saying that nothing changes for clients. And now we have the extra resource to really enable us to grow much more effectively.”

Matterport CEO Bill Brown said that the Virtual Walkthrough name “will be retained in the UK” and that the business “will continue to operate and service clients as usual”.

Brown added that the aim over time was “for Virtual Walkthrough to integrate Matterport’s 3D technology as a replacement for the 360-degree tours it currently provides” as well as “eventually sell the Matterport Pro Camera and Cloud Services” that remain the company’s patented advantage in the industry.