Breaking Property News – 30/11/2023
Daily bite-sized proptech and property news in partnership with Proptech-X.
iamproperty announces appointment of Mark Lewis as New Group Chair
Press Release London 29th November 2023: iamproperty is pleased to welcome Mark Lewis as Group Chair. The appointment comes at a key time for the business, with work well underway to deliver its vision of an integrated ecosystem of solutions for Estate Agents. Mark brings a successful track record of leading and scaling ambitious businesses with great technology at their heart. With a passion for disrupting the norm to offer consumers a more compelling and better way, there is a strong synergy with iamproperty, as pioneers of the Modern Method of Auction.
During an impressive career, Mark was Managing Director of eBay UK, scaling the online auction business to become a major force in UK retail. As Retail Director on the board of John Lewis, he helped grow the business to become the market-leading multi-channel retailer in the UK.
Mark Lewis was previously CEO of MoneySupermarket Group plc, scaling the price comparison business and helping households save over £2bn from their bills each year. He is currently a Non-Executive Director for both Santander UK and Direct Line Group plc, and a Trustee of The Photographers’ Gallery. The appointment comes following the announcement of Perwyn as iamproperty’s new Private Equity partner last month.
Mark said: “I am impressed by how iamproperty has successfully disrupted the property industry to bring more speed and security for both Estate Agents and consumers. What the founders Ben and Jamie have built is already impressive, with innovative modern auction solutions based on strong technology and a fantastic service proposition. They have a deep understanding of the industry and the needs of Estate Agents, and I’m looking forward to working together to see their ecosystem vision fulfilled.”
Ben Ridgway, Co-Founder of iamproperty, added: “We’re thrilled to welcome Mark. He brings a huge raft of experience which is really relevant for the direction of travel of the business, as we deliver on our ecosystem vision. We’re at a key point with the innovation behind this, with some new features and solution launches coming in the New Year. A huge thanks to Mark Goddard for his time as Chairman, during what was a very exciting period of organic growth and acquisition.”
Gurinder Sunner, Partner at Perwyn, also commented: “We invested in iamproperty to support the business, and there is a great synergy between our teams. We are delighted with Mark Lewis’ appointment as the new Group Chairman of the company, and we look forward to working with him to leverage his formidable experience and strategic insight in guiding iamproperty as it continues to scale. Attracting a Chairman of Mark’s calibre is another testament to the impressive business that Ben and Jamie have built; with Mark being excellently placed to help drive iamproperty’s expansion.”
iamproperty’s ecosystem of solutions empower Estate Agents to succeed. The business was founded by Jamie Cooke and Ben Ridgway, with a clear vision to modernise the property market with innovative, tech-enabled solutions. In 2009 they spotted a gap in the market for a property auction service that benefited both Estate Agents and consumers. They created the now multi award-winning auction service, iamsold, pioneering the Modern Method of Auction (MMoA) to bring much-needed speed and security to the market.
Now, iamproperty partners with more than 6,000 Estate Agency branches and offers an ecosystem of solutions designed to help accelerate agents’ success. These include the UK’s largest residential auction service iamsold, the UK’s first end-to-end digital client onboarding and conveyancing solution movebutler, and cloud-based iamproperty CRM.
ProptechOS closes funding round led by SaaS investor Partinc
Press Release – Stockholm, November 2023 – Software company Idun has developed ProptechOS, an operating system for building data, in close collaboration with key players in the real estate industry. Notably with Vasakronan as a key client and investor. ProptechOS is now entering its next phase, and today announced the closure of a round of funding led by Software-as-a-Service investor Partinc.
ProptechOS has been on the market since 2019 and boasts users in Sweden, the United States, Germany, Norway, Denmark and Finland. The real estate industry is only beginning to embrace digitalization, which holds immense potential for optimizing resource usage across various domains, such as energy consumption, operations, and utilization while enhancing client experiences. Access to data and the ability to scale solutions cost-effectively are crucial in this development.
“Until now, we have collaborated with our clients to develop ProptechOS into a useful product, following the principles of other cloud platforms. Almost all our clients are rapidly transitioning from pilot to wide production. This makes it the right time to introduce new shareholders, and Partinc brings impressive expertise in scaling SaaS companies internationally” says Per Karlberg, co-founder and CEO of Idun.
ProptechOS is a SaaS platform built on the open standard RealEstateCore, facilitating the integration of all applications within the PropTech world. This ensures property owners are future-proofed, as they only need to build a single integration with ProptechOS, rather than integrating each application with every individual system in their properties. Furthermore, the platform makes it cost-effective to add, improve, or replace PropTech solutions at scale.
“Growing ProptechOS in collaboration with the company’s founders and Vasakronan will be immensely intriguing. We see significant potential in ProptechOS’s offerings, given that the market is virtually limitless. Additionally, it is great that Partinc, through ProptechOS, can contribute to reducing environmental impact in the real estate industry, one of the world’s largest industries,” concludes Per Nordling, founder and partner at Partinc.
ProptechOS IoT platform collects real-time data from building management systems, BIM, business data, and IoT devices, harmonizes it, contextualizes it, and makes it available to building owners, building operators, facility managers, and end users. The platform allows for the use of PropTech apps on buildings for optimization purposes and is configured to scale with your growth using ProptechOS’ application ecosystem. ProptechOS optimizes energy use, presence analytics, environmental certification, predictive maintenance, and other innovative use cases.
Partinc is a European investment firm specializing in SaaS companies that offer software services within the B2B segment. As an active investor, Partinc works closely with its portfolio companies, primarily in the Nordic and Benelux countries. The company maintains offices in Sweden and the Netherlands.
Andrew Stanton Executive Editor – moving property and proptech forward. PropTech-X
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