OpenAgent raises $6 million in funding
OpenAgent, which markets itself as helping vendors find the most qualified real estate agent to sell their property, sees readily expanded horizons.
The real estate agent comparison site OpenAgent.com.au has raised $6 million in funding from Hollard Investments with its founder, Richard Enthoven, to join the OpenAgent board.
OpenAgent bills itself as the fastest growing player in the sector, having trebled in size year on year.
They now seek to attract more of the 500,000 people selling properties around Australia each year.
The site uses data from more than two million sales and has some 15,000 customer reviews of varying worth with OpenAgent taking 20% of an agent’s commission on the sale of properties that OpenAgent refers.
After OpenAgent launched in 2013 it was referring 50 customers a month to real estate agents. It now sits at around 1000 a month.
It has assisted in the sale of $2.6 billion of Australian property.
Co-founder and co-CEO of OpenAgent, Zoe Pointon, said the investment from Hollard gives OpenAgent the opportunity to drive greater awareness of the service and improve the user experience for Australians looking to sell their homes.
“Having the people behind companies like Hollard Insurance and Greenstone Ltd. invest in us is incredibly humbling."
Richard has been a mentor to both me and my co-founder Marta Higuera for the past year and a half.
Pointon concluded; “Australian home owners continue to lack information and guidance when making one of life’s most important financial transactions: selling your home. We believe failure to compare agents is a significant contributor to poor outcomes for both sellers and buyers in real estate. There are still too many Australians who don’t get the right agent to sell their property, and we want to fix that.”
The funding round from Hollard Investment takes OpenAgent’s total funding to $8 million.
It follows $2 million investment in 2013 and 2014 by a group of investors, including Pete Flint, the founder of US real estate giant Trulia.
Ms Pointon said she and Ms Higuera met Mr Enthoven four years ago at a start-up accelerator group event called Heads Over Heels.