Online agent reveals plans to float on stock market in two years as it embarks on crowdfunding campaign

Online agent 99home – which charges sellers a standard £99, and landlords £49 – says it is planning to float on the stock market in 2020, as it crowdfunds for the first time.

With 30 days still to go, it has overshot its £295,000 target and by yesterday evening had raised £301,140 from 52 investors.

99home puts a value of £9.8m on itself, according to the pitch on Crowdcube.

The business, which launched in July last year, claims to have grown to become the eighth largest hybrid and online agent in the UK.

It aims to have over 300 local agents by next year and expects to have 62 new local experts by the end of this year. Eventually, it plans to have up to 500 local agents.

It is also aiming to have an overall market share of selling and letting of between 3% and 5%.

The investment it is currently seeking will help recruit more agents and expand its marketing, IT and customer service capabilities. The business also plans to have 25 support centres nationwide. At the moment there are two, in Wembley and Sutton, with centres in Birmingham and Leeds due to be open by the end of next month.

99homes was co-founded by Sachin Gupta and Vijay Vashistha.

Vashistha told EYE that so far growth has been through recommendation, with under £6,000 spent so far on the acquisition of 2,400 customers. He said there are no plans for a second crowdfunding campaign as the aim is an IP in 2020.

99homes’ price tariff starts with no charges: it is free to list a property on its website, to have SMS and email alerts, and to have a free valuation.

Otherwise, the standard fee is £99 upfront, which includes listings on Rightmove and Zoopla. A hybrid service costs £499 and a high street service £999. In the latter two cases, £99 is charged upfront, and the remainder on completion.

Meanwhile, a separate crowdfunding campaign is aiming to raise just over £100,000 for a self-managing platform for landlords and tenants, enabling them to bypass agents.

brightLET says it uses automation and bots to help landlords manage their own properties, “saving them time and money in agent fees”.

The site, which also books and manages tradespeople, is building a database of pre-screened professional tenants.

Its Seedrs fund-raising campaign values the business at £3.24m. Of the £100,003 it seeks to raise, it has already got £52,000 from 67 investors, with 52 days still left to run.

Its pitch says: “Research has shown that landldords and tenants are unhappy with the traditional pricing model offered by high street and online agents.

“Over the past two years there has been a rise in real estate agents who operate only online, claiming to fix the problem.

“However, in our opinion, we believe that what they are offering is the same traditional model with reduced pricing. We believe this model is not a true solution to help landlords reduce costs and scale their portfolio.”

brightLET says it will initially focus on growth in the London rental market, where it says it will save landlords £1,368 per property per year.

https://www.99home.co.uk/

https://www.seedrs.com/brightlet

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25 Comments

  1. devonlondoner59

    Unbelievable lol. A few months ago this business, via a PIE email, were advertising for new people to join their team.

    I looked at their website, and ended up with tears of laughter running down my face. It was full of spelling and grammar errors, made up words, dreadful photography and copy that read like it was written by my 7 year old. The piste de resistance was a photo of a bathroom with a lamp plugged into the wall.

    Shocking if it wasn’t so funny,

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    1. hertsagent13

      You’re right. The spelling and grammar was so bad that I took a screen shot of the site and discussed it on my LinkedIn. I was genuinely horrified.  I’m staggered people would take this business seriously. A fool and his money… I’m going to start a new disruptive airline, I’m going to charge people before they know where I’m going to take them, I value this idea at £100m, I don’t have a plane yet, or customers, no revenue but it’s definately a £100m idea.  Now off to seedrs to get my money

      Report
  2. Trevor Gillham

    Drop that video.

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  3. Ric

    Are the people who invest in these companies the same people who reply to the email from Nigeria attempting to lay claim to their £30,000,000 locked away inheritance.

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    1. devonlondoner59

      they might be using Nigeria for their Trustpilot reviews, 150+ 5 star reviews. No 4,3,2 or 1 star reviews. And many reviewers have only ever reviewed one business.. 99home lol.
      plus their website clearly says they will filter out DSS… hey, Shelter…
      I’d rather crowdfund chocolate teapots.

      Report
  4. JVSOZ

    OMG, Goodluck with that! You’ll need it. However, Cyberduck might invest, he’s super optimistic.

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    1. Hillofwad71

      JV
       
      To be fair  you read Cyberduck’s posts on LSE Bricks he is currently  very lukewarm and not invested . Maybe wrong but doubt whethe he would give this offer second thoughts,

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  5. JonnyBanana43

    How can they afford to pay their local reps?

    These businesses don’t work. We know that PIE. Stop feeding us this Fake news.

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  6. Hillofwad71

    569 sales instructions !!! Good Luck with that investment ! Crowdcube was yet another successful money raise for Emoov this summer but little sign of this  changing the status quo with Yopa well ahead in the race  behind Bricks

    According to Zoopla

    Yesterday for example where I guess the clocks going back signals the start of the Xmas slowdown

    Purplebricks 194 fresh instructions ignoring recyclers

    YAWNING GAP

    Yopa  26 fresh ignoring recyclers

    Emoov 10 fresh instructions ignoring recyclers

    Tepilo 1 fresh !!!!

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  7. Moveaside01

    Seriously, what sort of idiot is going to invest in company that charges £100 & £50 respectively for their services?

    Oh hang on, apparently there are thousands of them!

    Get your Ponzi’s at the ready……

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  8. smile please

    So what happens when they realise £99 is just a smidging too low to make a profit?

    Do they rebrand to 3k homes?

    Joking aside, this is why crowdfunding needs to be regulated.

    This along with other offerings, investors have little or no chance recouping their investment.

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  9. Property Poke In The Eye

    Lol… These lot are jokers.   The only thing that will floating is their bath duck in 2 years time.

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  10. Trevor Gillham

    Does crowdfunding come with a 12 hour cooling off period? So, when the booze and drugs have warn off you can cancel what the hell you got upto last night?

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  11. AgentV

    I never understand what these companies supposedly bring to the pot that’s new…..even loss making cheap fees to gain business is old hat now.

    However, I guess it seems an easy way to pay yourself a good whack for a couple of years.

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  12. WestMidsValuer97

    Haha!! As if any legitimate investor would touch this load of rubbish.

    They state themselves they want a 5% share of the market….at £99 per sale….well it doesn’t take a genius to work out that this, together with all their cross sales, will not pay a fraction of the £500 local agents let alone the investors.

    Absolute joke.

    Just another inexperienced idiot. Or two in this case.

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  13. PeeBee

    “with under £6,000 spent so far on the acquisition of 2,400 customers.”

    I wouldn’t say this customer has had their £2.50s-worth spent on them YET:

    https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-55190859.html

    Anyone disagree?

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    1. ArthurHouse02

      That must be a picture from street view!

      You have to ask questions of the vendor as well. Who would be happy with that. No internals, no description. Having been on since December, is a vendor really content to sit there just because they are paying £99?

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      1. devonlondoner59

        is it even on the market? A quick google shows it’s archived with another agent… exactly the same copy but with internet photos…

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  14. mrtickle

    “get an offer and accept if you happy”

    if you happy

    if YOU happy

    “get and offer and accept if you happy”

     

    I’m sorry, but if you are investing in a company that:

    a) doesn’t know the difference between “you” and “you’re” or;

    b) knows the difference, but doesn’t care enough to write it on their website…

     

    You deserve to lose every single penny you invest.

    These guys are jokers – and not even smart, witty ones.

     

    Embarrassing to the industry as a whole. They should stop what they’re doing right now and read a few books first. Maybe start with some simple ones, just to get the ball rolling.

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    1. PeeBee

      mrtickle
      The command of the English language in their website text is… debatable… to say the least.
      But rather than be pedantic over that – which let’s face it could consume our lives for a great length of time if we were to dissect their entire website and correct the grammar, diction and spelling for them – I think it is important to note that it seems their customers have a similar issue with getting their words right, as seem in their Trustpilot reviews:
      https://uk.trustpilot.com/users/5bd5b10a4de5666d345d8528
      https://uk.trustpilot.com/reviews/5ba2d68b8c83fd0b58da0472
      https://uk.trustpilot.com/reviews/5ba2d60a8c83fd0920a8d87a
      https://uk.trustpilot.com/reviews/5b6614899d2def0bf85bfeb5
      All of whom seem to have gone to the same school as the website copywriter.
      Some might even think that the ‘reviews’ weren’t written by the named people – but that’s a big argument raging in its’ own right elsewhere.
      Or maybe that’s just how people write things today – like text-speak only without spellcheck switched on…
      …who knows?

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  15. Blue

    I was about to invest when one of my carers pointed out “What if some clever person invents a 98home ?  I could lose my sweetie money.

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  16. smile please

    Interesting reading their crowdfunding pitch.

     

    By 2020 50% of property will be sold through online agents….. well the next 14 months will see an increase of 45% of market share … FFS these guys are laughable.

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  17. Andrew Jolley

    Just put them in The Dragon’s Den’ and let’s see what they value the company at, never mind the smelling……oops.. spelling! Ideas are one thing but accounts are another and there are those of us who’ve been around long enough not to take this as a serious news item. I presume, PIE, that this is ‘Fake News’ or some silly Halloween prank. But thanks anyway PIE, it’s made for some very amusing reading.

    As already mentioned, investors, just wait for the fog to clear after the all night party.

    Cheers AJ.

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  18. J1

    I have just checked and it isn’t April Fools Day today.

    It could well be though.

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  19. gardenflat

    £495 for a shower anyone?

    https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-68235067.html

     

     

     

    Report
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