Australian B2B online and mobile marketplace for the property industry Investorist has raised $2.5 million to increase its presence in Australia, Asia and the United Kingdom and launch into the United States.
Investorist currently has offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Shanghai,Beijing, London and a presence in Singapore and Malaysia.
The first A Class capital raising follows the successful seed investment from the SaltaGroup in March 2014 when $1.7 million was invested.
The new funds will be used to continue the global expansion of Investorist - now worth $20 million before its second birthday - and break into the North American market. Investorist boasts 4,000 current users of its system, which provides residential property developers and real estate agents with real time inventory management and access to global distribution networks. In June 2015, there were more than 20,000 unique searches generated on the platform.
Investorist founder and CEO Jon Ellis said that last month alone $500 million in property was transacted through the site, comprising around 1,000 sales.
He said off-the-plan property sales accounted for over one-quarter of all Australian residential property sales.
“These sales are different to existing property sales; they are typically sold as investments, often cross-border and usually sourced for the consumer by an intermediary business or advisor. These sales occur prior to advertisements appearing in newspapers or consumer portals. Investorist is the only marketplace of its kind to use sophisticated technology to transform a traditionally paper and phone dominated industry,” he said.
The latest funding comprised 20 individual investors many of whom are current users of the platform. A number of these key investors have also joined Investorist’s Advisory Board such as Stuart Marburg, co-founder of Netspace, Paul Clarke CEO of ASX-listed Redflex and chairman of Melbourne Water and director of the Victorian Water Industry Association and Benni Aroni a property lawyer and developer of Melbourne’s EurekaTower and founder of Watersun Properties.
Mr Marburg said it was exciting to see a young Australian start up come up with a unique idea and "improve what was once considered a very traditional sector"Mr Aroni added: “Investorist is a game-changing platform, and it's exciting to be involved. To see a young Australian start up with a unique idea succeed on this scale, in what was once a very traditional sector, is fantastic.”
Salta Properties CEO Investment Management David Tarascio, an investor who has also joined the Investorist Advisory Board explained: “Having been involved in numerous developments I have experienced first hand the myriad of issues associated with traditional communication methods like email and excel spreadsheets. Double sales and miscommunication between parties are common and costly. It took me 10 minutes in my first meeting with Investorist 18 months ago for me to realise this was something the industry was crying out for and I wanted to get involved. As the seed investor I have enjoyed seeing how it’s already streamlining everyday networking and relationship building across our industry."
