Purplebricks and Boomin co-founder Kenny Bruce and the former chairman and CEO of Countrywide and co-founder of Rightmove, Harry Hill, have been appointed to the Board at The Agency UK (TAUK).
Bruce has joined as a senior non-executive director at TAUK, while Hill, who was lobbying to become chairman of Purplebrickes before the online estate agency was sold earlier this year, has been appointed chairman of the TAUK board.
Bruce, who left Purplebricks in 2019, was most recently involved with Boomin, which he launched with his brother, Michael, in an attempt to challenge established property portals, including Rightmove, Zoopla, and OnTheMarket.
The Bruce brothers lost a significant amount of money as a result of the firm’s collapse, after injecting their own cash into the platform to keep it operating.
Boomin attracted investment from a number of high-profile backers, including Foxtons and DN Capital, but was unable to raise about £6m of additional equity needed last year to keep the business going.
Bruce has now returned to the estate agency sector with TAUK, which has close to 100 partner agents, reuniting with former Purplebricks head of customer support and head of operations in the US, Stephanie Walker, who is co-founder and head of sales at TAUK.
She said: “After the incredible work of the founding team and especially, our founding agents, we have built incredibly robust foundations which have attracted this investment.
“This influx of capital empowers us to further support and nurture our partner agents, enabling them to achieve unparalleled success and productivity. It will bolster our digital marketing efforts to complement agents’ activities in the field, attract top talent across the UK, and most excitingly, launch our highly anticipated estate agency director team model in key metropolitan markets.”
TAUK has revealed that it is also planning a new downstream capital offering, designed to empower new and existing agents within the TAUK network to cultivate substantial long-term value within their own businesses.
Andrew Vass, chief executive of TAUK, commented: “We are thrilled to close this initial funding round with such overwhelming interest in our vision for the UK real estate market.
“As a UK-based business, we have the advantage of steering our direction with agility, adapting to market conditions while maintaining control over our operations.
“We are deeply honoured and grateful to have Harry Hill and Kenny Bruce join our board and be part of TAUK’s journey.”
TAUK founder Mark Bruce added: “Our intention was always to offer a premium suite of services to ensure the success of each estate agent joining us to build their businesses.
“This significant investment of capital, with the endorsement of Harry and Kenny, shows we have one of the best solutions for estate agents considering the self-employed route.
“We are now poised to increase our Partner Agent headcount across the UK and look forward to talking with agents about how our support, lead generation and tools will give them a unique edge in the marketplace.”
Oh great! Kenny Bruce is back in PIE! It’s been at least 12 hours since we read about him. I’m getting a bit sick and tired of hearing about PB and KB. There is more to the industry than those two PIE. I’m not sure why PIE is so obsessed with them to point of saturation, maybe they are shareholders in PIE? But isn’t it about time to change the ****** record?
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Maybe because people keep on commenting about them?
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I love it Jan, especially the bit where Kenny lost a ton of dough on Boomin. He’ll be as poor as you soon, I’m guessing Jan is on the pension so Kenny might take about 5 years to catch up….
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As long as there’s no “disruptor” advertising BS about commisery, or equivalent, then I suppose good luck to them?
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I thought Harry Hill was the Big Shirt Collar Comedian, when in fact Kenny Bruce is the one that keeps us all laughing..
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He is laughing all the way to his huge bank account
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It’s depleting at a steady rate baby….
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I’m a big fan of some of the self employed models, however I really really really fail to see the appeal of this one.
Especially now.
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TAUK thinking adding “big” names and/or “has beens” to you product will make it work!!!
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[Words removed as the claim made was inaccurate]
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How funny! If Mr. Hill was playing professional sport it might be fair to say he probably can’t move as quick as he used to but when it comes to experience and domain knowledge every day, every conversation, every success or failure adds to what he knows.
Michael and Kenny Bruce are wiser now and know what they got right and wrong last time. Together their book of contacts and connections is immense.
For all the reasons PB struggled against #local agency TAUK will face the same challenges and a lot of their associate agents will have found new homes at EXP or Ewemove so although I wouldn’t back them I wouldn’t bet against them.
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Looks like same old same old!
Currently advertising 450 properties including sstc, c100 available, 84 agents on their website, that works out at c5 properties per agent in total and just over 1 per agent available.
On checking, many agents have zero listings. In spite of that there are 775 reviews on trustpilot, only 2 are verified.
Our “local” expert is ex PB and has recently joined a local high street agent in the area, after 2 years at Tauk, maybe because he has zero listings with Tauk?
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All change at the party in the brewery. Still won’t make any beer, much talk and laughter is all they will produce. Doomed ……… where is the finances coming from them or someone else ….. answer on a postage stamp! Is this a type of Ponzie scheme where senior management get all the dosh, while it lasts?
If their credentials were that good …. why still not at PB? Serious lacking reality in the CV’s.
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