South African Investment Facilitator HAVAIC Acquires Stake In Instant Property
Havaic; a South African investment and advisory firm that is based in Cape Town has acquired a 10 percent equity stake in Instant Property; a commercial real-estate portal that has operations in South Africa.
According to the details of the acquisition, HAVAIC has acquired a 10 percent equity stake in Instant Property with the advancement of the first round of financing to that effect. By virtue of the agreement, there is also a clause which allows for follow-on funding at the discretion of Instant Property. If exercised, this allocation provides that up to 17 percent equity stake in the real estate portal will be transferred to the investment and advisory company.
Executive Director of Havaic, Grant Rock, is also expected to the join the Instant Property board in a non-executive capacity as part of the specifications and provisions of the deal. While the specifics of the deal as per the exact amount that was invested is yet to be disclosed at this time, the funds injected can be expected to go some way towards accelerating the growth of the real-estate platform, as well as develop its technology and facilitate expansion plans.
Instant Property; a Johannesburg-based property-tech startup that was established only a year ago by Wayne Berger, is known to have wrapped up an angel investment round earlier. And much like the current development, a coy stance was maintained with regard to the specifications of the deal in terms of valuation.
Since coming into existence around February last year, Instant Property currently boasts over 9 million square meters of commercial property listings on its portal. It also believed to lay claim to more than 2.5 million square meters of warehouse, office, and retail space which are currently available to let and for sale.
With the spate of significant investments, mergers and acquisitions witnessed in the South African realty space from both the existing players and international investors in recent times, it could be surmised that the sector is spoiling for a disruption and ripe for the taking. And with the potentials of the sector becoming quite evident amongst industry players who are beginning to get in on the act, it might not be long before we get to see that much-vaunted “property-tech boom.”
Feature image credit: Techfinancials
This post was edited on 13/12/18.
