The amount of money raised by property industry start-ups pitching on the UK’s two key crowdfunding platforms has increased dramatically this year when compared to 2017, The Negotiator can reveal. Property companies have so far raised £17.4 million on Seedrs.com and Crowdcube.com, an almost five-fold increase on last year’s fund raising of £3.83 million. The huge increase in crowdfunding has included several high-profile pitches from online estate agent Doorsteps.co.uk which in September raised £914,230 compared to £395,480 last year, both on Crowdcube. Also, eMoov raised £1.84 million in July and Airbnb management platform Airsorted raised £7.19 million in March. Other companies successfully raising funds have included property investment funds, proptech companies, and both hybrid and online agents including Howsy, Vesper Homes, SPCE and BrightLet, whose crowdfunding effort has yet to close but has raised £52,012 so far. A company specialising in house raffles recently raised £268,200 on Seedrs, on which proptech firm MoveBubble also raised £825,000 and tenant lettings finding service Urban Collective raised £282,871. Not all crowdfunding efforts are serious. On Crowdfunder.co.uk which is a more social and personal crowdfunding platform, a pop band called The Wharves recently raised £1,087 after damaging a Mercedes car owned by an estate agent in London. British Pearl £2m Emoov – £1.84m Propity – £389k Viewber – £245k Housers – £40k LandlordInvest – £300k Raffle House – £260k Urban Collective – £282 Movebubble – £824k Airsorted – £7.2 million Infabode – £760k Howsy – £686k Crowd Property – £874k Vesper Homes – £121k SPCE – £274k Brightlet – £52k BrickOwner – £176k
This year has been a bumper one so far for a range of property companies, which have crowdfunded a total of £17.4m ($22.2m) on UK sites Seedrs.com and Crowdcube.com alone, compared with the 2017 figure of £3.83m. Doorsteps.co.uk, Airbnb management platform Airsorted and eMoov have been among the most successful, raising £914,230, £1.84m and £7.19m respectively, while proptech firm MoveBubble achieved £825,000.