Sydney and Madrid-based proptech company PropHero has raised $8 million in a seed round just eight months after raising $1.6 million in pre-seed funding

The round was co-led by real estate-focused VC Fifth Wall and early-stage European fund Samaipata. Local VCs Jelix Ventures and AfterWork Ventures, which invested in the February pre-seed round, also re-entered.

The startup had no plans to increase until 2024, but thanks to strong local growth this year for the digital real estate investment platform, co-founders Pablo Gil Brusola and Mickael Roger brought the Seed round to the fore amid plans to ramp up PropHero’s international ambitions. feed.

The money will be used to continue building an integrated online real estate investment service, improving the company’s data models and digital customer experiences, expanding partner referral channels in mortgage brokerage, accounting and financial advice, new hires and to expand geographic footprint to new ones. international locations.

The proptech startup wanted to change the way Australian and European investors find, buy and manage investment properties, with an end-to-end solution including an investment strategy, consultation and support from a personal real estate coach to disrupt the traditional buyer brokerage market.

Gil Brusola, co-CEO of PropHero, said the platform combines: data-driven and AI-led insights with personalized digital user experiences backed by human expertise.

“We help our clients build real estate wealth over time. After a real estate strategy consultation with a real estate coach, our platform shows you personalized recommendations,” he said.

“Then we make it super easy for you to buy and manage that property because we have a network of trusted real estate professionals who help with the inspection, bidding, financing and ownership process.”

The startup was launched in June 2021 and now has 40 employees in Australia, Spain, Argentina, India and Indonesia.

Co-CEO Mickael Roger said they have now helped about 250 clients find investment properties and they expect to double that number by the end of 2022.

“About 60% of our customers come back to buy their second and third properties from us and 80% refer their friends and family,” he said.

“Importantly, all of our investors achieve positive cash flow and price growth, even as interest rates rise and the broader real estate market softens. PropHero’s customers are even outperforming the market and this shows that we can use data to beat the downturn.”

Roger said the market was so hot earlier in 2022 that they stopped buying properties around April because they were overvalued. Rising interest rates have helped calm things down.

PropHero’s technology identifies investment properties with high return and low risk potential. Clients have 24/7 access to the platform’s tailored recommendations via a smartphone app, as well as access to a personal real estate coach and a network of real estate professionals.

“Our ambition is to revolutionize the real estate investment industry globally by using digital technology to replace traditional buyer agents and make real estate investment more time efficient and profitable,” said Gil Brusola.

“Soon you will have direct access to all the services you need as a real estate investor from our apps, such as real estate discovery, mortgage financing, insurance, property management and tax information.”

Fifth Wall partner and European leader Miguel Nigorra Esteban said they would like to support PropHero to support its European expansion.

“While real estate has has always been one of the most sought-after asset classes, it can be intimidating and inaccessible, and PropHero’s Buy-To-Let (BTL) model is helping to change that,” he said.

“Improved by using data-backed algorithms and an already impressive track record, we believe PropHero is poised to become a global, low-threshold solution in the real estate investment market.”

AfterWork Ventures co-founder Alex Khor said: “Against a media background of doom and gloom in the real estate market, PropHero is defying the trend to deliver meaningful results for clients. VCs like AfterWork are most excited about innovative start-ups like PropHero that are taking new, data-driven approaches to traditionally outdated industries like real estate investing.”