-
€11.5m equity funding led by Talis Capital and HV Holtzbrinck Ventures
-
IMMO has raised over €60million for its residential buying platform
-
Equity investment will fund expansion in the UK and Germany
-
IMMO opens up the European single unit residential real estate market to institutional investors by buying properties directly from homeowners at scale using an AI based evaluation process
-
Acquired IMMO properties are turned into high quality, fully furnished “living as a service” homes targeting the long-term rental market
IMMO Investment Technologies (www.instaimmo.de, www.immo.co.uk) has announced a funding round totaling €72 million, with €11.5million in equity from prominent investors Talis Capital, HV Holtzbrinck Ventures, Tom Stafford & Rahul Mehta of DST Global, Mato Peric and Kingsway Capital amongst others. Further €60million capital was raised from real estate investors for deployment through the company’s residential platform. IMMO digitally sources, appraises and acquires centrally located properties at scale on behalf of institutional investors. The acquired properties are upgraded and turned into a fully-furnished “living as a service” homes targeting the long-term rental market.
PRESS RELEASE – – Also covered in TechCrunch! >
The latest funding round marks an important milestone for the London-based company, which has sourced €35 million in properties since its first market launch in Sep-2018. From renting furnished IMMO homes as a young adult to selling a house to IMMO later in life, the company’s vision is to become “Your housing partner for life”.
Founded by Hans-Christian Zappel (Davidson Kempner, Forbes 30U30), Samantha Kempe (Blackstone) and Avinav Nigam (P&G), IMMO buys residential properties directly from consumers on behalf of professional investors, thereby helping consumers sell their homes effortlessly and providing investors with desired real estate exposure at scale. IMMO homes are fully renovated/furnished, meaning tenants enjoy high-quality, long-term rental homes that are professionally managed.
Hans-Christian Zappel CEO & Founder of IMMO says, “Selling a property is the biggest and often most stressful transaction in our life. It takes on average 191 viewings and many months to identify a buyer. About 40%2 of transactions still fall through at that point due to financing risk, changing circumstances and minds. When selling to IMMO, customers enjoy a chain-free, professional experience that is fast, reliable, transparent and convenient. We offer attractive prices without charging fees and enable homesellers to plan their life around this important transaction.”
“For our tenants we strive to provide the best rental product and experience in the market. IMMO homes are always modernised to a high standard, beautifully designed and furnished. We want our tenants to have the comfort of knowing that they will feel at home in their IMMO apartment. With Talis Capital and HV Holtzbrinck Ventures we are proud to make some of the best venture investors in Europe part of our journey to disrupt residential real estate, the biggest asset class in the world.”
Vasile Foca, Managing Partner at Talis, comments: “The IMMO team has impressed us with their vision and track record in building technology companies. IMMO is uniquely placed to revolutionise residential real estate by connecting consumer supply with institutional demand. They are solving major pain points for sellers and tenants, and poised to build a mega brand. IMMO’s data-led ability to unearth and secure properties at scale in a streamlined way using technology has, for the first time, unlocked the opportunity for institutional capital to be deployed in this asset class. We are excited to join the IMMO team on this next chapter of growth.”
Professional investors love residential real estate due to its attractive risk-adjusted returns profile, however deploying capital at scale is very challenging 3 despite the fact that residential is the largest asset class in the world (€39trillion in Europe alone4). Single units account for 94% of all residential real estate transactions5, but as valuing and acquiring 1,000s of single units has so far been practically impossible, investors were restricted to deploying in the empty market of portfolios and multi-family developments. IMMO has built the technology to source, appraise and acquire single units at scale, thereby opening up a single unit residential real estate as a new asset class for institutional investors.
In one year, IMMO has assessed over 6,000 property leads (€2.2Bn) using proprietary machine learning technology, reducing the underwriting process from days to a matter of minutes. IMMO’s inspection team collects 281 data-points on every property. The IMMO Intelligence combines this property level data with millions of environmental data-point such as traffic nodes, crime statistics, school/restaurant/airbnb ratings, distance to supermarkets etc. to come up with an offer price for the seller. It is this speed and accuracy that allows IMMO to buy properties at scale directly from sellers.
Avinav Nigam, COO & co-founder of IMMO says, “Fundamentally, IMMO’s C2B model is backed by the more resilient rental market as investors’ willingness to pay is based on the asset’s ability to earn a rental return, effectively making our model ‘weatherproof’. The traditional iBuyer C2C model relies on liquidity in the sales market, that dries up during economic uncertainty. Furthermore, IMMO operates a “balance-sheet light” model – we do not buy properties on our books, and hence don’t take capital risk. By comparison, traditional iBuyers have full capital risk exposure.”
ENDS
Sources:
2. https://www.propertywire.com/news/uk/number-property-sales-falling-uk-reaches-decade-high/
4. https://internationalservices.hsbc.com/content/dam/hsbcis/pdf/HSBC_Global_Real_Estate_Report_July2017.pdf (pg 08 : EU = 23% of $168.5 trillion)
6. https://www.globalpropertyguide.com/Europe/Germany/Buying-Guide
7. https://www.dropbox.com/s/t845d94wwezodfu/IMMO%20AVM%20Market%20Benchmarking%20%281%29.pdf?dl=0
NOTES FOR EDITORS
About IMMO Investment Technologies
IMMO Investment Technologies simplifies the way people sell, rent, and invest in real estate through technology. The company is building Europe’s largest residential fintech platform for institutional investors to enable programmatic real estate investment at scale, for the first time, unlocking the residential asset class. For sellers, IMMO provides a quick and transparent sales process with a guaranteed offer in 48 hours and tenants enjoy fully customisable & furnished apartments on long-term rentals, fully equipped to move in immediately for a seamless next-gen rental experience.
For more information please see www.immo.co.uk and www.instaimmo.de
About Talis Capital
Talis Capital is a venture capital investment firm that takes smart money from some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs and business people and invests it strategically in early-stage technology companies with global potential. Talis has invested over $600 million worth of transactions since 2009 and the portfolio includes Darktrace, Onfido, iwoca, Pirate Studios, Luminance, Threads, Ynsect and Oh My Green. Focused on building long-term partnerships, Talis leverages its network to give some of the world’s most innovative startups opportunity to thrive.
About HV Holtzbrinck Ventures
HV Holtzbrinck Ventures was founded in 2000 as the corporate venture arm of the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. In 2010 HV Holtzbrinck Ventures became an independent venture firm, raising funds from a strong network of international institutional investors.
Today, with more than € 1 billion under management, HV Holtzbrinck Ventures is one of the largest and most experienced independent European early stage venture funds. For almost 20 years we have believed in the disruptive potential of the Internet. During this time, funds managed or advised by us have invested in over 165 companies, including great successes like Zalando, Delivery Hero, HelloFresh, Flixbus, SumUp, Scalable Capital, and many others.
As reliable long-term partners, HV supports founders in developing their businesses into large and sustainable companies. Besides HV Holtzbrinck Ventures’ investment, we have a wealth of entrepreneurial, operational and financing experience. This approach has made HV Holtzbrinck Ventures one of the most successful European venture investors.
