Boomin collapse leaves Bruce with £4 million bill
Michael Bruce has been saddled with a £4.1 million debt after Boomin went into liquidation.
Purplebricks co-founder Michael Bruce (main picture) is facing a reported loss of more than £4 million after the collapse of his latest venture Boomin.
Boomin called in liquidators in October after making a number of staff redundant.
Now, documents filed at Companies House reveal that Bruce is owed £4.1 million as Boomin’s largest unsecured creditor, The Times reports. HMRC is the second largest creditor with a debt of £1.8 million.
It is believed several investors may have had their fingers burned by the demise of Boomin including Foxtons, DN Capital and Channel 4, all of whom invested directly or indirectly in the company’s start-up.
Boomin attracted 8,000 agents to its platform, including Hunters, Belvoir Group and Carter Jonas. But it was unable to raise £6 million needed to rescue the business, and restructuring advisers BK Plus were called in.
Surpise to many
News of a liquidation was a surprise to many as Bruce raised new investment cash last Spring, including an injection of money from his own personal fortune.
He issued a statement to customers at the time of the collapse saying: “Timing has not been our friend. Our move to a fee-paying, revenue-generating model from April 2022 coincided with the start of the economic slowdown and the drying up of funding.”
He went on to say that “uncertainty in the housing market” contributed to the liquidation of Boomin.
How on earth does HMRC end up being owed £1.8 million? Are there no procedures in place to stop the debt mounting?
As for MB, couldn’t happen to a nicer chap!
Good to see the back of such a flawed concept, was a complete farce from day one and again not a single property marketed (with any agent) from the smart Vals (which Boomin wanted us to work long into the night for)
It’s hard to criticise something that was tried with great effort and offered free of charge but Boomin was fundamentally flawed. The concept was superb – creating a multi layered sales platform for buyer engagement but there has to be a return on investment as a fee paying, member agent.
Of the 70 odd Smart Vals we received and answered in the ‘time limited’ window – not a single property went to market (with any agent)
I failed to see a reason to buy shares or pay a membership of £350 per month for something that wasn’t delivering on its base promise of more instructions.
It would seem many other agents felt the same and this was ultimately the demise of Boomin that didn’t have the financial backing to play the medium game and stay in the fight.