A US $4.5 million pre-Series A funding round has been secured by South African prop-tech firm Flow in order to support its global growth.
In order to connect individuals with properties, Flow, a company founded in 2019 by Daniel Levy and Gil Sperling, goes directly to the main social media sites in the world: Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Its API technology automates rental and seller listings and sends pre-screened leads directly to real estate brokers and landlords, connecting social media users with the property.
Futuregrowth Asset Management, Endeavour Harvest Fund, and serial entrepreneur and investor Steven Heilbron were all participants in the US $4.5 million investment round, which was led by Futuregrowth Asset Management, which contributed US $2 million. Buffet Investments, Kalon Venture Partners, and Vunani FinTech Fund have all raised their stakes in the business.
The power of the Flow social media-driven real estate marketing platform will be integrated into current global property websites and CRM platforms to fuel the company’s B2B growth plan.
“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,” said Sperling.
“Our aim 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 – and the Flow platform and its APIs enable 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.”
The integration of Flow into the B2B side of the global property industry, according to Amrish Narrandes, head of private equity and venture capital at Futuregrowth Asset Management, was the next logical step in the company’s evolution. His company had closely followed Flow’s progress in South Africa and Australia.
“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,” he said.
