Raising equity on Crowdcube, EstatesDirect quickly hit their £250,000 goal on Crowdcube in just the first 10 days of listing live on the crowdfunding platform. The offer went into overfunding and is now fully funded at £500,000 in 2 weeks as 192 investors backed this startup company. The single largest investment came in at just over £200,000.
EstatesDirect is a “personal estate agency” service that charges a fixed fee to market, let or sell any property regardless of location or value. The service wants to disrupt the entrenched process of using expensive estate agents that charge percentage based fees.
The company has spent the last two years honing their model to a point where they may now list a property to sell for as little as £390 or connect a tenant to a lease for around £45. The company still maintains client contact and support.
The model was developed in recognition of similar type online services that have completely altered transactional businesses such as travel.
The company was co-founded by Steve Smith an entrepreneur who launched a household name “Poundland” back in 1990 which he successfully sold in 2002. Poundland was generating approximately £186 million in annual sales at the time of his exit. His partner, Darren Richards, was the entrepreneur behind DatingDirect.
EstatesDirect has now become one of the fastest companies to raise £500,000 on the Crowdcube platform and may be a record for the site.
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