Epropservices re-brands and launches big proptech fund
Now called nurtur, the owner of Fine & Country and The Guild is to back several proptech firms every year to offer 'best tech' to its agents.
The parent group of Fine & Country and The Guild has changed its name and says it now wants to become a major player in the proptech investment market.
epropservices plc is now nurtur.group and is also launching a proptech Accelerator Programme headed up by one of its NEDs, former Reapit boss Gary Barker with an expected multi-million pound war chest, the Neg understands.
The seed investment fund cash, which is to be for early-stage start-ups, is to be provided via the group along with cash from Tosca Fund, which has backed the industry giant’s recent proptech purchases including Starberry, LeadPro and The Property Jungle and is a major shareholder – as well as the nurtur.group.
Its CEO Jon Cooke says: “With the new businesses joining the group, we required a new cohesive identity that fully represented both the mission of the group and the specialist service providers within it.
“Our plan is to accelerate proptech development and widen the availability of innovative digital products that will propel our business and our customers forward as the sector embraces digitalisation.”
Unique proptech fund
Barker says the Accelerator Programme will be unique within the property industry because, rather than being outside money and experts thrusting their ideas on agents, its led by experienced industry figures with broad knowledge.
“We’ll be making 8-10 investments a year and one area we’ll be looking at is platforms striving to improve the conveyancing process,” he says.
Big names on the fund’s advisory board are to include Cooke, proptech expert Andrew Stanton from Proptech-PR, Starberry chief Ben Sellers and Kerfuffle boss Simon Whale. Cooke adds: “We believe that the industry is just at the start of the digitalisation of the home-moving process.
“The aim of the business is to connect leading technology products to our nationwide membership network and agents, helping property professionals select the tech that works best for them within a single ecosystem that works with just one login,” he adds.
“Companies joining the programme get a direct route to our agent network, advice from our board industry advisors and mentors, and integration into our technology platform.”
Capital, wisdom and a cache of potential clients day one – it is the evolution of accelerators and as usual I am in the mix of it with a whole host of people who understand real estate and what the digital transformation of that industry really should look like. Thank you Kristjan, your agnostic and wise words are a brilliant first endoresement.
An interesting and logical evolution of eprop with the backing of Toscafund. As with all accelerators, the eye will be in the detail but this seems like the best vehicle potentially out there for early-stage resi proptech.