Oct 19, 2020

October 19, 2020 Singapore-based, tech-enabled real estate agency, Propseller, has raised $1.25 million (S$1.7 million) in seed funding, according to a statement. The round was participated by Iterative, Hustle Fund, XA Network, Rapzo Capital, Lazada co-founder and former CFO and CMO Stein Jakob, Dot Property founder Ben Neve, and three strategic investors. Propseller had last raised a $700,000 (S$1 million) angel round in December 2018 from investors such as Yang Bin Kwok, founder of Zopim; Erwan Mace, founder of Muslim Pro; PJ Vandepitte, Global COO of Foodpanda; Yvan de Rham, former chairman of Sotheby’s International Realty for Switzerland. Founded in 2018, Propseller aims to offer a more reliable solution for property owners to sell or rent property. It focuses on offering an end-to-end property agent service from providing an indicative valuation to sale, leveraging on technology to achieve better and faster results at half the standard commission of 1 per cent instead of 2 per cent. “We sell homes two times faster than average and our service is rated 4.8/5 on average by our clients. Since our agents close 60 transactions per year, and 9x more transactions than the agents of traditional agencies, we are able to pass part of the savings to our clients hence we charge only 1% to sellers while providing premium service,” said Adrien Jorge, founder and CEO of Propseller. “Propseller’s secret to growth is they’ve figured out how to combine the best of both worlds — advice of the finest property experts plus the convenience of a digital experience,” said Brian Ma, Iterative Partner and founder of proptech startup Divvy Homes. “In a market like Singapore with high property prices and the need for high-quality service, we believe digitalisation will be inevitable. We’re excited for Propseller to lead the charge here.” Propseller currently transacts $55.2 million (S$75 million) worth of properties per year and aims to triple its team size in the next six months. It competes with Southeast Asian players like PropertyGuru, 99.co, iProperty, and Ohmyhome which all tap on technology to facilitate the sale and rental of properties in the region. Japan’s Drone Fund makes first close of $95m VC fund Drone Fund, a Japanese venture capital firm that invests in drone startups, has made a first close of its third VC fund —Drone Fund III — after raising an undisclosed amount in September. In a statement on its website, Drone Fund said the third fund secured capital commitments from SoftBank Corp, SMBC Nikko Securities, NTT DOCOMO Inc, Kobashi Industries Co Ltd, Kokusai Kogyo Co Ltd, and Leave a Nest Co Ltd. Drone Fund III has a target of 10 billion yuan ($95 million) with the final close slated for March 2021. The VC firm’s portfolio includes drone software developer Clue, drone patent and IP firm Drone IPLAB, done and AI business firm Aerial Lab Industries, drone flight management firm DroneDeploy, and a lot more.