Flow raises $4.5 million pre-Series A round for global expansion

South African proptech startup Flow has announced a $4.5million pre-Series A funding round to aid its global expansion ambitions. The funding is South Africa’s largest round for a proptech startup.

According to a press release, the startup, co-founded by Gil Sperling and Daniel Levy, will use the funding to support its B2B growth strategy which entails integrating its social media-driven real estate marketing platform into existing international property portals and CRM platforms. Sperling and Levy are serial entrepreneurs who also co-founded adtech and performance marketing company, Popimedia, which was acquired by Publicis in 2015.

Problem statement and solution

Flow states that 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.

Their platform and its APIs enable portals to offer fully-automated off-site advertising 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 aim is to enable the property industry’s growth, and help connect buyers and sellers with agents and portals on the platforms where they spend most of their time – social media.

Breakdown of investors

Flow’s $4.5 million pre-Series A round is 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.

“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,” said Futuregrowth Asset Management head of private equity & venture capital, Amrish Narrandes.

In South Africa, Flow has partnered with firms including Prop Data, RE/MAX, Seeff, eXp South Africa and RealNet, as well as in Australia with AgentBox, leading agency groups and a major portal going live in March.