London-based proptech firm Nested, which provides loans to home buyers, has closed £5 million in funding in advance of national expansion. This investment comes after its previous funding round of £20 million.
Two London VCs lead investment round
The investment has been pumped into Nested from Axel Springer and London-based VC firms – Balderton Capital and Northzone. New investor Axel Springer, a prominent investor in the new breed of estate agents, participated through its subsidiary Aviv Group in the round, together with existing shareholders Balderton and Northzone Capital. This round comes when the company is in its pursuit of modernising the estate agency.
As per Nested CEO Matt Robinson, this investment round will bring the vast industry experience and resources of Axel Springer to the board before Nested expands the footprint of its Modern Estate Agent offering in 2021.
Robinson added: “The average home-selling experience is poor, and it’s not at all clear what your agent is even doing. There are some great agents out there. However, the tools traditional agents have and the services they can offer to customers are antiquated. That’s why we’ve built a truly modern estate agent where we hire the best local agents out of traditional agency and support them with unrivalled technology and unique features like our buying agent, chain management and advance. The result: a far better experience where you know you’re getting the best possible outcome for your sale. And customers agree: we’re proud to be rated as “Excellent” on Trustpilot and recently became the only Mumsnet rated estate agent in the UK.”
Dr Marc Rustige from Axel Springer said: “We are firm believers in the opportunity to modernise and digitise estate agency services. From our global market scan we could see that Nested were building out a powerful offering that combines a superb experience for home sellers and buyers. We are already seeing the success of their approach with strong growth in local market share across London.”
Plans to expand beyond London
During the COVID-19 crisis, the company tested a new growth model, focussing on making its estate agency service hyper-local to give customers the best of both worlds. The company launched five areas in 2020 and quickly gained up to 15% market share in the local markets across London. Founded in 2016 by GoCardless co-founder Matt Robinson, it eyes to launch in more areas soon and plans to launch an additional 30 areas over the next 18 months, thereby expanding outside London as well. Nested is touted as the modern estate agent. It offers unique features such as a buying agent and cash advance for movers to buy before they sell.
The post Balderton Capital and Northzone backed London proptech Nested bags £5M funding appeared first on UKTN (UK Tech News).
