Challenger property portal wins more funding to take on Rightmove and Zoopla
PropertyHeads founder and CEO Ben Davis says he's secured the cash from several hedge fund-owning backers in the City.
The battle among the UK’s half-a-dozen ‘challenger portals’ to be the one to topple Rightmove and Zoopla continues apace as PropertyHeads reveals its latest cash injection.
The property social network that brings together agents, consumers and information on 30 million addresses has completed its latest funding round, using the cash in part to buy 17-year-old house price website OurPrices.co.uk.
It was the first to make Land Registry data available for free, years before the big portals started offering similar services.
To raise the new funds, PropertyHeads has sold a 3% stake in the company to a handful of private investors, some of whom are founders of well-known hedge funds in London.
This, along with follow-on investment, will be used to pay for a series of significant acquisitions and joint ventures that will be announced soon by the fast-growing industry network.
PropertyHeads was founded in 2018 by City investment manager Ben Davis (pictured, above) and claims to have 10,000 estate agencies and other property-related companies registered on its platform.
700,000 users
The purchase of OurProperty.co.uk will add 700,000 registered users to PropertyHead’s database, he says.
“It’s a real statement of intent in the marketplace and we’ve gone from strength to strength in the short time we have been around,” says Davis.
“It serves as evidence that our carefully designed investment strategy continues to flourish, and we have a number exciting deals in the pipeline to be announced shortly.”
Read more about the growing number of challenger portals.
