UK-based real estate agency, Doorsteps, has successfully secured more than £500,000 as it enters the final week on equity crowdfunding platform, Crowdcube.
As previously reported, Doorsteps was founded by Akshay Ruparelia, who notably has started and exited two online businesses. The company reports that during its first year it grew to become the 41st largest real estate agent in the U.K., with the number of customers joining has tripled each quarter since Q4 2016, and revenues growing more than 10 fold in 5 months. Doorsteps state its main goal is to be the biggest estate agency in Britain.
“Estate agents are the least trusted professionals. They are seen as offering poor service and high prices. Doorsteps.co.uk. seeks to solve this. Doorsteps use a blend of real-life agents and technology to offer fixed, fair pricing. Delivered in an honest, transparent and hassle free way. A London high street agent will typically charge an average fee of £6,500. Doorsteps charges £199 for selling a property from scratch, equating to customers savings this year of over £700k in fees already. It is predicted 50% of all UK properties will be sold online by 2020, compared to 4% last year. The online agency market door has been opened by Purple Bricks plc (a 3 year old rival with market cap of £1.1bn on the London Stock Exchange) and others. We believe the time is right for large-scale, national branded estate agency business, facilitated by the internet and its viral effects.”
Funds from the Crowdcube campaign will be used to continue expansion. The initiative is set to close next Thursday.
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