Here are the top news stories from the UK PropTech space in August 2021…
NavigatorCRE Pockets £12.5M To Fund UK Growth
The Seattle-based proptech company operates a real estate data analytics SaaS platform and has won £12.5 million in a Series A funding round.
Fulcrum Equity Partners, which benefits from a robust track record of more than 25 SaaS platform investments in the HealthTech and FinTech sectors, led the investment round in NavigatorCRE alongside participation by existing partners.
The round enables the start-up to enter the UK’s commercial real estate market and achieve its aim of doubling its size and revenue in 2022. The company plans to become a major presence in the UK by 2023, through the establishment of a dedicated London office in Q4 2021, from where it intends to expand into Europe.
Founded in 2015 by Taylor Odegard, the company spotted a critical gap in the technology serving the commercial real estate industry, in that most firms, from asset managers to brokers, had insufficient capacity to unlock the power of data in their daily operations.
Having successfully moved the focus away from purely brokerage services to enterprise asset management and occupiers in 2019, the company has received numerous awards for innovation in data analytics, asset management, capital markets and occupier services from TechCrunch, CREtech and RealComm.
CEO Odegard sees the company becoming the go-to platform globally for data optimisation, visualisation and analytics in commercial real estate. He believes the funding, together with their clients’ increasing desire for overseas expansion, has strengthened their ability to take this ambitious step.
COO Kevin Shtofman seeks to capitalise on a swiftly growing industry trend towards accelerating the analysis of data to produce insights in minutes rather than months, which they call their customers’ Return on SpeedTM.
London Proptech Edozo Nets £2M To Drive Growth
As a software company providing mapping and market data to the property industry, Edozo is one of the fastest growing proptech platforms in the UK, securing £2 million from venture investors in the first half of the year.
Existing investor Blackfinch Ventures led the investment round with new investors including Juno Capital. The funding will enable the company to scale up to a multi-product platform in 2022 by increasing market share, developing new products and expanding the team.
Founded by Marcus Ginn and surveyor Andrew Peacock, Edozo works to transform the commercial real estate sector, still reliant on manual research and legacy software, by means of simpler and cheaper technology to reduce the time taken to research and value commercial real estate.
Last year, the company added computer aided design (CAD), compatible functionality and updates to its comparison data product, which helped attract new customers in new sectors of the property market.
CEO Ginn believes the company’s products already maximise efficiency gains for customers and the use of the multi-function platform will further increase the savings.
Dr Reuben Wilcock, of Blackfinch Ventures, says Edozo offer critically important products and services that will help the property sector become more efficient and flourish.
Edward Rudd, Partner at Juno Capital, adds that Edozo has a strong growth plan to develop new tech solutions that will transform the sector.
US Counterpart Snaps Up UK Proptech
US firm MRI Software has bought UK proptech FSI, a cloud-based facilities management solution that improves building sustainability, data visibility and mobile connectivity.
MRI believes FSI complements its integrated workplace management solution and enhances the company’s position as a proptech provider that powers the whole workplace.
FSI has over 300 clients globally, including Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. The company, founded in 1990, serves various industries, including retail, healthcare, education, offices, government, logistics and manufacturing.
Dermot Briody, MRI’s SVP believes facilities management teams play a vital role in ensuring offices are safe and efficient as employees begin returning to workplaces around the world.
This latest acquisition, he adds, provides MRI with a comprehensive, up-to-date software solution that enables clients to keep their buildings and campuses clean, properly equipped and well maintained for their employees and visitors.
John Moriarty, CEO of FSI, says the takeover will enable the company to expand in existing markets and new countries and empower their clients to accelerate digital transformation, an issue that has become increasingly important as the pandemic has evolved.
He adds that customers are now able to make use of MRI’s range of integrated workplace management systems (IWMS), which enable many types of organisations to manage their real estate portfolios more effectively and overcome business challenges.
UK PropTech Bags £72 Million For Global Expansion
Plentific has expanded in the UK by focusing on the institutional property maintenance and repairs markets and using a cloud-based platform. The company has raised £72 million from international investment funds and clients, bringing its total funding to date above the £100m mark.
The funding will be used to expand the company’s presence in the US, launch in new countries and develop more tech products. Cem Savas is keen for the company he co-founded eight years ago to become the de facto digital partner for landlords and service providers globally.
The move to digital, cloud-based services such as Plentific has accelerated as many landlords ditch their ageing software systems or manual spreadsheets to manage their properties.
The funding has come from, among others, US property and investment firm Brookfield Technology Partners and existing investor, London-based A/O PropTech.
Josh Raffaelli, Managing Partner of Brookfield, says he looks forward to using his firm’s expertise in reducing operating costs and increasing efficiencies to drive Plentific’s growth and expand its global footprint.
Gregory Dewerpe, founder of A/O PropTech comments that Plentific’s continuing success in digitising legacy systems, building an efficient and transparent marketplace of service providers, and enabling data driven insights at scale for institutional landlords, demonstrates that real estate is a sector ripe for reinvention.
The company is pleased to continue partnering Plentific to support expansion in the US and wider international markets.
