South Africa’s HouseME Lands “Multi-Million-Rand” Investment From Two Investors
HouseME; a property-tech startup that is based in South Africa, has closed a “multi-million-rand” funding round led by undisclosed investors which include a financial services provider and a property development company.
Since becoming fully operational, HouseME has held its own quite well as a medium through which landlords can link up with prospective tenants by leveraging a digital platform that fully automates the letting agency process, while also serving up competitive pricing – all for a fraction of the traditional fees.
HouseME uses smart technology that digitally coordinates the complete viewing, vetting, administration and payment process. The startup has developed a number of products such as PlaceME; its proprietary software tool which allows tenants to place an offer on a property at a certain price.
With this tool, landlords are able to assess what potential tenants are willing to pay for their property at any given time and they can accept or reject offers as they deem fit. The transparent and digital PlaceME tool ensures that landlords get the best price and tenants don’t face any discrimination.
Rental Guarantee is a newer product developed by the startup. HouseME’s Rental Guarantee, at an additional 1% of the yearly rental, is an option that covers the landlord in the case of a tenant defaulting on the monthly rental. The Rental Guarantee also ensures that landlords are paid on time every month, regardless of when the tenant makes the payment.
The startup claims to currently manage several hundred properties in six provinces while also boasting a successful collection rate that is 20 percent higher than the industry average. Having begun the year with a respectable 3,000 registered users, the startup claims to have seen that figure grow five-fold within the last eleven months as it now boasts up to 15,000 users currently.
In a conversation with WeeTracker, HouseME spokesperson offered, “Our proprietary technology is what sets us apart from the rest of the industry. Our team has built products that no one else has built, and continues to innovate tirelessly to remove every last hassle from renting and letting. Through the years we’ve come to realize what great impact our platform has on both landlords and tenants.”
Although the startup remains coy as per the specifics of the deal bordering on the exact amount of funding raised and the identity of the investors, it was revealed that the latest deal does give some amount of equity to the latest investors. This investment, which is the latest in a series of funding rounds closed by the startup, will go into the expansion of its product team, the launching of new services, and acceleration of growth.
Speaking to WeeTracker with respect to the development, Ben Shaw, Co-Founder and CEO of HouseME remarked;
“This investment comes as our second follow-on round this year, and we continue to scale and begin to seriously prepare for a Series-A opportunity within the next 18 months.”
Having seen talks of several months and exploration of various product-related opportunities over the course of the year culminating in this funding deal, HouseME now seems better poised to thrive in an increasingly-competitive SA property-tech space.
This post has been updated to include comments from the Co-Founder & CEO.
