The U.K.’s biggest flat-fee online brokerage, eMoov.co.uk, has backing from James Caan and Faisal Butt’s venture capital firm, Hamilton Bradshaw Real Estate (HBRE). But the deal “is less about raising new capital and more about the networks that HBRE (can) provide,” said eMoov founder Russell Quirk.
Quirk said Butt “has been phenomenal in assembling a dream team that will help me to realize my ambition for eMoov.”
HBRE board members who are also investing in eMoov include Ivan Ramirez, director of global product at Groupon; Jonathan Galore, CTO at Wonga.com; and Sheraz Dar, the former group marketing director at Digital Property Group.
Quirk launched eMoov in 2009, out of the ashes of a traditional, five-branch real estate agency, charging a flat fee of £395 per sale, compared with the 1 to 2 percent fees charged by traditional U.K. brokers. Quirk tells the The Telegraph that property portals like Rightmove and Zoopla “have become the shop window for estate agents.” Source: bmmagazine.co.uk