Purplebricks invests more cash in growing German copycat

German hybrid estate agency Homeday has been given €40 million (£35.2 million) to expand its business from a triumvirate of investors including Purplebricks.

Homeday was founded in the same year at Purplebricks but has so far not emulated its British counterparts early runaway success.

The two other investors in Homeday are leading European venture capital firm and German media giant Axel Springer.

Purplebricks has already pumped in £11.1 million when, back in October 2018, it invested in the business via a joint venture with Axel Springer.

This week’s new cash injection by the three investors shows they clearly believe Homeday has the potential to disrupt the German property market.

Homeday has 200 head office employees and 180 Purplebricks-style local property experts and markets itself in a similar way to Purplebricks in the UK, highlighting its lower selling fees compared to traditional agents.

Close relationship

“As a partner and investor from the very beginning with Axel Springer SE and Purplebricks, we are extremely pleased about the impressive development of Homeday,” says Uwe Horstmann, MD of Project A.

“Project A and Homeday have had a particularly close relationship for a long time. We have not only accompanied the company financially, but Project A has supported Homeday in many areas such as the development of marketing or business intelligence.

“We also provided operational support for technological and product-related development.”

Purplebricks has declined to comment on the deal to The Negotiator because the company is in its ‘closed period’ prior to publishing its annual results on 3^rd July.