Online agent HouseSimple, backed by the co-founder of Carphone Warehouse, is said to be raising millions of pounds to fund its expansion amid a race for cash among the sector’s biggest players.
According to Sky News, HouseSimple, which includes Sir Charles Dunstone’s vehicle Freston among its shareholders, agreed a cash injection of £13m last week.
In January 2015, it was announced that Dunstone had invested £5m in HouseSimple.
Sky News says the latest raft of money will be used to finance its growth plans as competitors such as Purplebricks, easyProperty and eMoov also seek to build their share of the online agency market. Sky News did not mention today’s Countrywide’s plans in its report.
HouseSimple claims it saves customers an average of more than £5,500. According to the Sky News report, its latest fundraising is understood to have valued the business at around £40m, a fraction of the £312m market capitalisation of listed rival Purplebricks.
Last week, Savills led a £16m fundraising round by YOPA, another digital start-up in the online agency market.
In a statement, Alex Gosling, HouseSimple’s founder and chief executive, said: “We are relentlessly focused on delivering the best selling results for our customers, and with this latest funding round we are confident we can increase our selling success rate and achieved selling price even further.”
The funding round was organised by Lepe Partners, a merchant banking boutique.
Comments (3)
Anyone can ‘save’ money by doing a job yourself. Go down to B&Q and get a leaflet about installing your own central heating system and save yourself £1000’s. They’ll even sell you the radiators.
No doubt you’ll be calling a plumber to fix a bad job down the line amd it’ll end up costing you double.
Same applies for anyone selling their biggest asset online.
‘Go down to B&Q and get a leaflet about installing your own central heating system and save yourself £1000’s.’
Then hope to high heavens that you’ve got a decent Estate Agent who will be able to placate the buyer when there is no certification for the works and they’re threatening to walk away.
(That would be one who hasn’t already been paid, by the way…)
True PeeBee, a decent agent would ask the questions and instruct the vendor to get the certification.