Ex-Dragon James Caan has invested £25,000 in Property Innovation Labs (Pi Labs) through crowdfunding platform Seedrs.
The news comes after a £200,000 investment, also through Seedrs, by Countrywide.
Pi Labs, which describes itself as Europe’s first property tech accelerator, has been jointly created by Juliette Morgan of Cushman & Wakefield and Faisal Butt of venture capital firm Spire Ventures.
It is currently raising £500,000 on Seedrs and by yesterday had attracted over £400,000 from 129 investors.
The sum will go towards funding the start-ups selected to be invested in by the Pi Labs fund. To date, five businesses have been chosen out of over 250 applications.
Butt, Pi Labs CEO and who previously founded Hamilton Bradshaw Real Estate in partnership with Caan, said: “We are honoured to have this investment from James, whom I have seen first-hand support British small businesses over many years.
“He also has a great deal of knowledge about the property industry and so his backing means a lot.”
The five property technology start-ups currently going through the programme are AirSorted, Land Technologies, OfficeR&D, Rialto, and Wilde Rooms.
Also raising funds on Seedrs is the iProperty Company. It has so far raised 64% of its £500,000 target with seven days to go. The biggest investor who is anonymous has put in £200,000.
Comments (6)
Cann Butt Fart…? is this the New Stat Analysis Company employed by Zzzzooooopla?… or a New Anti Flatulence Product which is seeking venture funding?… or…..?
It’s Friday and it’s playtime!
There was a time when you had a business idea, scraped together the money to start it and gave it your life and soul. It seems now, in the get rich quick arena, you dress up the idea and play with other peoples money!
Given Caan’s connections with Butt, his appearing on this crowdfunding site is purely a public show of support. Interesting they felt they needed that to get over the line.
Some people still prefer that method as at least 4 posters on here can testify.
In the spirit of doing things as effectively as possible who wants to help by offering opinions on the following tag line?
“Making portals a nicety not a necessity!”
I spoke to one of my testers this morning. I asked a simple question; have I built something capable of weaning both agents and the buying /selling public off their dependence on the portals? The answer came back “yes, but it will take time”
It is widely believed that Agents need to be on Rightmove,& Zoopla or OTM +1, It is a big claim but I think I have turned that need into a want. If I have done that I have almost by accident from a challenge to put up or shut by Peebee just cracked the foundations of both Rightmove and Zoopla.
As I said ‘over there’, this is hardly ‘news’ – but at least your version isn’t sensationalising it.
Butt can’t f@rt without Caan being there for first sniff. They are, or were until very, very recently were, business partners so the only surprise here is that he had to wait until someone much, much bigger put their cash up first.
“Pi Labs was launched in 2014 Faisal Butt’s venture capitalist firm Spire Ventures…” – of which, at the time, Caan was a Director.
It was a given.
Unless iProperty registers with a redress scheme. Then it will remain an illegal model as away from being a “passive intermediate” it shows a video on site offering ancillary services.
Seedrs should NOT allow this fund raise to happen without carrying out professional due dilligence.
Come on Trading Standards. Police unlawful models in the interest of agents playing by the rules.
“Come on Trading Standards. Police unlawful models in the interest of agents playing by the rules.”
Would probably help a teensy weensy bit if a complaint was registered, thereby alerting TS to the situation…