Yopa, which says it is the second largest hybrid agency when measured by listings, has received a major new £20m investment.
Savills - an existing investor in the agency - has pumped in further cash, alongside three other companies, also existing investors.
Yopa already employs 140 people and the latest investment will be used to hire more staff, develop technology and expand a new customer service centre in Watford.
Yopa’s high profile backers also include DMG Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Daily Mail and General Trust, which according to the Mail this morning has ‘led’ the new investment package.
Last month LSL Property Services, in a trading statement to shareholders, reported that its net bank debt rose 45 per cent to £46m thanks partly to £20m invested in the online agency Yopa.
In the spring the UK PropTech Association, suggested that Yopa had enjoyed around £55m of investment - at the time that was more than Emoov and Tepilo combined, and before today’s new funding.
Yopa now has had a total of £75m invested in it.
Yopa chief executive Ben Poynter says: “This latest funding round is clear recognition of Yopa's potential to disrupt the traditional home sales industry.”
Manuel Lopo De Carvalho, chief executive of DMG Ventures, adds: “Yopa is a stand-out performer in our portfolio. We are thrilled to support Ben Poynter and his team.”
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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: you can’t digitise personal service. This model will keep on needing more cash forever. It can never become profitable and investors need to read this article about why VCs will never “disrupt property” in this way. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/when-vcs-learn-cant-disrupt-resi-property-charles-wright
Congrats to Yopa on the fundraise. Money continues to pour into online estate agency, which is fully justified when you look at the enormous unnecessary costs charges to the general housemoving public to sustain the massive inefficiencies and unnecessary costs in the "traditional" model.
Money continues to pour in as they can't make money on their own! It's not possible to do a decent job for customers when you charge so little.
Funny, that is what they said about Uber, AirBnB, Amazon, Google and Netflix too. And now it is happening in banking too, with companies like Revolut. Anyone clinging to the old fashioned, high cost, "please come in to the branch and also I will send one 100 emails" models is going to get blown away. No one under 60 wants that anymore.
In what way is Yopa like any of those companies you mention?
Great, more investment for the 'disruptors'
disrupting what? and how? What has any of these companies done to actually fundamentally change the process of buying and selling property? Nothing. All they do is charge less and give less. It is not a game changing situation and the sooner the smoke and mirror advertising clears and the general population cotton on to this the better.
There is room for a truly game changing agency to emerge, but they would need to completely re write the entire process from the ground up including conveyancing. The current crop of so called disruptors are not it.
Letd hope YOPA (Burger King anyone?) dirupts Saville's business.
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