Flow, a South African propertytech startup, has raised $4.5 million to conclude its pre-Series A investment round.
The investment will help the startup drive its B2B growth strategy, integrating the power of its social media-driven real estate marketing platform into existing international property portals and CRM platforms.
Flow’s $4.5 million pre-Series A round was led by Futuregrowth Asset Management with $2 million, followed by Endeavour Harvest Fund and serial entrepreneur & investor Steven Heilbron. Initial investors Kalon Venture Partners, Vunani Fintech Fund and Buffet Investments have also increased their investment in the company.
Founded by Gil Sperling and Daniel Levy in October 2018, Flow solves the complexity of fund infrastructure. It connects information across investors, providers, investments and systems to realize its mission of empowering thought.
The global property industry faces a massive fragmentation challenge, with millions of agents and thousands of property portals fighting to reach buyers and sellers on digital channels – and they haven’t been able to do so in the way many other verticals have.
The aim of Flow has always been to enable property industry growth, helping connect buyers and sellers with agents and portals on the platforms where they spend most of their time – on social media.
The industry desperately needs to be brought into the 21st century – Flow’s platform and its APIs enabled portals to offer fully-automated off-site advertising on amongst others, social media and digital out-of-home boards at scale, to enable agents and portals to easily target and connect with buyers and sellers, using proven best-practice tools.
“We’ve keenly followed Flow’s progress in South Africa and Australia and integration into the B2B side of the global property industry as the next natural step in the company’s evolution,” says Futuregrowth Asset Management Head of Private Equity & Venture Capital, Amrish Narrandes.
“We share Daniel and Gil’s vision to bring the property industry into the 21st century and know they have the expertise and experience to make it happen – and we’re pleased to be able to be part of a South African company taking bold steps that will bring much-needed change to an essential global industry.”
Kalon Venture Partners CEO, Clive Butkow, says that their increased investment in Flow shows their conviction about the power of our platform. “Flow has proven its value in enabling an antiquated industry – as we knew it was when we invested in the start-up phase of the company – and we are excited to see it grow into a global brand, solving global problems.”