The sum achieved on Crowdcube was over two and a half times its target of £1m for 5% equity in the company.
The crowdfunding move launched on 1 September was Crowdcube’s highest share equity raise for a property technology business and the second highest for a technology company behind JustPark which raised £3.7m in March.
Investors include venture capital investment from Episode 1 Ventures, Maxfield Capital Partners and Swiss firm Startive Ventures, as well as from the London-based accelerator Seedcamp.
Dragon’s Den entrepreneur James Caan offered eMoov seed funding earlier this year and the company’s turnover has increased from £ 965,619 to an estimated £1.8m for the year end.
The firm is forecasting turnover in 2018 of over £39m largely driven by growth in the online sector, a new lettings proposition, upselling and global expansion. It said a further raise is planned in early 2016 with an IPO or private sale anticipated in the next few years.
“Estate agency is one of the last industries to be disrupted by technology,” said Simon Murdoch, managing partner at Episode 1.
“The benefit of that disruption will be a fairer cost for the consumer, greater transparency and a customer empowerment that simply doesn’t exist when selling property in the UK currently. Episode 1 invested in the team at eMoov because we believe that it has the best approach to succeed and win.”
Alexander Lazarev, partner at Maxfield Capital Partners, said the firm’s crowdfunding success is a clear indication of a long awaited transformation of an old-fashioned industry.
Reshma Sohoni of Seedcamp, said: “eMoov’s success with crowdfunding shows that hundreds of people believe as strongly in the innovation in the sector and that the online estate agencies like eMoov are really disrupting bad old ways to make buying and selling a precious home a better experience.”
Russell Quirk, CEO and Founder of eMoov, said the firm had been taken back by how well the crowdfunding campaign went.
“I never, in my wildest dreams, thought that we would get to £2.5m, two and a half times our target. It is an exciting time for online estate agencies with significant investment coming into the sector. We will continue to have the best tech platform and the best customer service in our sector and will push online estate agency to over 50% of the market by 2020.”
eMoov sells properties for a £595 upfront fee or £595 plus VAT if customers choose to pay on completion. The firm has sold 4,500 properties since launch.
