Reapit has secured more than £20m of new investment from Accel-KKR as the property software provider steps up spending on AI and consumer technology.

The company will also use the additional funding to develop its estate agency platform.

Reapit said it now invests more than £40m annually in product development and innovation. This figure includes its existing research and development spending.

The company plans to move its technology beyond traditional transaction management. It wants to help agents maintain relationships with customers beyond individual property transactions.

Reapit expects AI to change how estate agencies operate. The technology could help agents manage customer relationships, identify potential instructions and automate administrative work.

Its strategy brings agency data, customer interactions and AI together within one platform.

Mark Armstrong, chief executive officer of Reapit, said: “This investment is both a validation of that journey and a commitment to the future. It enables us to accelerate innovation even further, empowering estate agencies with the intelligence and consumer experiences they need to deliver outstanding outcomes for the customers they serve.”

Reapit believes better customer data could help agents identify future opportunities more quickly. These could include potential sales and lettings instructions.

Reapit Home, the company’s customer-facing portal, forms a key part of the strategy. The portal allows agencies to maintain contact with customers beyond an individual property transaction.

Agencies can combine information from these interactions with existing customer and transaction data. AI can then analyse that information and identify behavioural signals or potential opportunities.

For example, the technology could help an agent identify when an existing customer may need another property service.

Reapit expects estate agency technology to focus increasingly on longer-term customer relationships. Traditionally, much of the technology used by agents has focused on managing individual transactions.

The company said several estate agency businesses have recently renewed long-term agreements with Reapit. However, it did not identify the firms in its announcement.

Reapit will use the latest investment to accelerate development of its core platform, consumer technology and AI capabilities.

Matt McGown, chief product officer at Reapit, commented: “Our customers trust us with the systems their businesses cannot operate without. We never treat that as settled. This investment is our reciprocation. When an agency commits its most important operations to Reapit, it is committing its future performance to our roadmap, and that carries an obligation. We are putting more than £40 million a year behind making sure the agencies who backed us are the ones leading this market in 2030. Our job is to make their trust the smartest decision they made.”

Park Durrett, managing director at Accel-KKR, added: “The AI era will not be won by those with the newest technology alone. It will be won by those with the strongest foundations and the ability to innovate at speed.

“Reapit’s leadership is built on advantages that competitors cannot easily replicate: trusted customer relationships, market-leading workflows, a thriving ecosystem and decades of industry knowledge and data. This investment accelerates Reapit’s ability to build on those strengths and bring innovation and AI capabilities to customers even faster.”