eMoov launches new fundraising round with £2.5m goal

eMoov is looking to complete a fund-raise of £2.5m within the next two weeks, just over a year after successfully raising a similar sum.

In a letter to existing investors offering them the chance to invest again, eMoov chief executive Russell Quirk drops a strong hint that the business could be sold at some point, in an “exciting and lucrative exit”.

He also says the business is now valued at £35m, and this year it is on course to double its revenues compared with last year. It has grown its headcount to 60.

In the note Quirk says that excellent progress has been made this year and that eMoov is “looking forward to growing still further next year, winning more awards and building a business that has sound metrics and is strong and, ultimately, profitable.

“Robust KPIs, not just vanity metrics, will ensure that we are very investible and that an exciting and lucrative exit is not that far away.”

This year, he says, eMoov’s eight full-time local property directors have listed over 1,000 properties to date, with their performance exceeding expectations.

He says: “I’m now finalising our 2017 plan with the senior team and the board.

“In order to grow and to prosper, our investment in people, technology and marketing requires the next stage of our fundraising to be completed. We have further commitment from additional, third party investors and our institutional investors Episode 1 VC, Maxfield Capital and Startive Ventures are backing us again as ‘follow on’ with an additional amount.

“The raise target is £2.5m and with most of that already committed. The round is based on a healthy increase in our valuation from £19m (pre-money) to £35m since last September’s ultra-successful crowdfunding campaign.”

The new fundraising round closes on November 7, with almost all the money already raised.

Last autumn, eMoov raised £2.6m in a crowdfunding campaign which attracted almost 800 investors. It was a record amount for a proptech company to raise via Crowdcube, and sailed way over the original aim to raise £1m.

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27 Comments

  1. Chri Wood

    Comparing the financials from the previous business plan and the latest one will be interesting given current performance.

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  2. RealAgent

    That reminds me, doesn’t the new series of The Walking Dead start next week?

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    1. Robert May

      Reminds me of Oliver.

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      1. Mark Walker

        Reminds me of Agent Smith laughing in the Matrix.

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  3. AgentV

    Let’s says the total for the year ends up as listing 1200 properties…..that puts the valuation at over £29,000 per listing compared to a fee per listing of £566? Even if a supposed investor got the whole £566 (which wouldn’t happen ….because of the costs of portals and experts,admin etc.) as a dividend, that’s still less than a 2% return on investment. There must be huge future growth assumptions built into these valuations.

    Is there someone out there, with more understanding than I, who can explain how 1200 listings can lead to a market valuation of £35,000,000?

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    1. RussellQuirk

      1200? eMoov will list 5x that amount this year.

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      1. inthefield

        How? It says above that the 8 property directors have listed 1000 properties year to date. Its October the 24th so you’ve basically got 2 months left to list 5000 properties??

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        1. AgentV

          Inthefield, thanks…..that was my understanding from the article as well.

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        2. RussellQuirk

          No. Our LPDs are a small proportion of what we list. The rest via other channels

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          1. Thomas Flowers

            Mmmm ….the most intriguing comment on eye for such a long time?

            Pray tell what thoze other agency compliant channels may be?

             

             

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        3. Garret2

          Given 5,000 listings will make you about 1/10 the size of where PB claim to be…

           

          And PB market cap is currently £327,000,000…

           

          You haven’t just divided by 10 and rounded up to a nive £35,000,000…

           

          Have you?

           

          That would be silly.

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      2. dave_d

        Ahahahha… hahahah… hahaha.. hah.. funny…

        Oh that wasn’t a joke

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      3. PeeBee

        “1200? eMoov will list 5x that amount this year.”

        Roll up… roll up – all on board for the ‘Pick-A-Number… ANY Number’ game.

        Anyone else want a stab at it?

        (careful, mind – The Quirkster will immediately announce your guess as “a bet” and want you to fund his favourite charity…

        The RQ Foundation For Destitute Pwoperdee Exports.

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      4. dave_d

        It must be quite a bitter pill to swallow being in the shadow of PB considering that you were the one shouting about Online Estate agency so much.

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      5. Chri Wood

        And how many of those new listings were at heavily discounted ‘special offer fees’ or airport car parking spaces? Turnover is vanity etc. etc.

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  4. smile please

    HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

    LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

    The numbers, the boasts, the market share, the investment, the returns, the projected numbers, the management, the individuals, the marketing, the exposure, the professionalism, the knowledge THE FACT PURPLE BRICKS BEAT THEM TO IT

    Is all hilarious!

     

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  5. PeeBee

    At 6000 Quirkster-guesstimated listings, he is currently underselling his own company to the tune of £500k thanks to his MFI-style “£100 Off – Limited Time Offer” that seems to have run since the dawn of time.

    You would think that a company already scraping the bottom of the Fee barrel wouldn’t need to take a thumb-plane to the timbers – wouldn’t you?

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  6. Robert May

    As Mr quirk is  here today

    Mr Quirk  in January /February  2015  you had  about £1.5m invested in your firm,  in Autumn 2015  another £2.6m  plus another £0.45m showing as  charge on the business.

    In the  somewhat unconventional set of abbreviated account  filed at companies house on the last day of filing it seems that the  bank balance is showing a significant cash burn rather than cash generation.   Within a  few months of the last crowdfunding  less than £2m appeared to be left out of a total  £4.55m received (in addition to the operating turnover)

    From those slightly  strange accounts it appears your burn rate for 2015 was about £60,000 per week, if that is the case the £2,000,000 in the bank in January will be very much depleted  without a significant  increase in listing. With Yopa selling to Savills and Hatched going to Countrywide aren’t both those firms seriously tougher competition than when you crowdfunded last year?

     

     

     

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  7. MarkRowe

    This infuriates me. How do you even have the nerve to ask for such a sum of money, Russell!?

    You have received millions already. I would suggest that you make it work with that first… I know of many readers on here that could quite easily give an investor the return on their money with just a quarter of that amount and within a fraction of the time. I simply fail to understand why investors would go for this?

    You could argue that to get a venture like this off the ground it does require millions. Ok, if that’s the case – how many millions? Tell the potential investors the amount you need overall to do this?

    Any potential investors reading this, get in contact with any agent on here. They’ll show you the hard facts of how they can make at least a 6% return simply by investing in property!

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  8. Woodentop

    More interesting to his investors, get them to travel around the country and ask the consumer if they ever heard of eMoov?

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  9. Trevor Mealham

    The figures don’t stack. To send a rep out. RM/Z allocation, EPC, Pics, Floorplan, FS Board, sales progression etc doesnt leave a lot of profit = need for later fund raising.

    As an investor, Id be looking at what other low cost models ‘can save sellers £billions’

    With the odd £99-£399 popping up more often, How will the Purples and emoves compete with budget list getting cheaper.

    Thoughts of exit may be for the reason of getting out.

     

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  10. Robert May

    Don’t be surprised if someone sees some value in the last pawn on the chessboard.

     

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  11. Chri Wood

    eMoov’s CrowdCube pitch listed an income forecast of £6,24,800 in the period Jan 16 to Dec 16. That equates to circa 10,000 listings at the full advertised price.

    As Russell himself says above, they have listed just 6,000 this year with, we know, many of those heavily discounted fees. At a minimum of 40% off your own stated investor business plan target and failing to have 2016 as the “turning point” as promised by Russell in his Tweets, I hope those investors take a long hard look at the business plan and actual income figures v previous projections rather than they hyperbole put out before parting with any precious money.

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    1. PeeBee

      “That equates to circa 10,000 listings at the full advertised price.”

      Apologies for the correction, Chris – but it doesn’t.

      £6,624,800 equates to 11708 paying customers @ £565.83 (+ VAT – £679).

      At his current “Limited-Time Special Offer” that rises to 13730 listings.

      I hate being such a statistical pedant…

      …one way or another, he’s still only 50%+/- of the way to fulfilling his promise to investors.

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      1. Chri Wood

        I’ve got a stinking cold and am blaming an OD of Lemsip on my bad maths.

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  12. PeeBee

    SO…

    In the comments above, The Quirkster states:

    “1200? eMoov will list 5x that amount this year.”

    It’s already been establishes that whatever the figure (and let’s give him some credit – 6000 or so listings in a year ain’t bad) it’s still woefully short of the numbers/figures put forward on his last-but-one funding exercise documentation.

    But – what about NEXT YEAR?  What was the quoted numbers for 2017?

    Well… let’s say it’s a challenging target Year-on-Year.  £15,268,000’s worth of a challenge, to be precise.

    That’s either 26983 or 31644 listings-worth, dependent on how much the barrel is scraped.

    Or who knows – that thumb-plane might take it to 35,000.

    Those LPDs are gonna need wings.

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  13. Keyser Söze

    According to Zoopla Emoov have listed 338 properties in the last 30 days: http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/branch/emoov-national-brentwood-30084/

    Keeping up at that run-rate and on current form we are looking at just over 4,000 a year

     

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