Startup sees ‘prop tech’ future
An ambitious Kiwi company is focusing on Australia and the UK as markets for its commercial property management software.
Digital startup Re-Leased has raised $2.3 million with ambitions to become the commercial property sector equivalent of accounting software company Xero.
Re-Leased is cloud-based software that aims to oust the traditional desktop systems being used extensively by the commercial property sector.
Founder and chief executive Tom Wallace said from London that the money from local and overseas investors would be used to fast-track expansion and to keep developing innovative software.
The company already has 50 staff members. Many are based at its development headquarters in Napier, with sales and customer-service staff also in Melbourne and Queensland and in the United Kingdom.
It has received Callaghan Institute development grants and exporting support from New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.
The subscription-based software was targeted at commercial landlords and property managers who could gain economies of scale and save time by automating business processes, the company said.
The software included invoicing and arrears management, lease events, document storage, building maintenance, accounting and reporting. New mobile apps allowed tenants to lodge maintenance issues and view important dates and documents.
Founded in 2012, Re-Leased processes more than $250m in rent a month for more than 500 companies in more than 40 countries.
Its software platform was managing 35,000 properties for commercial landlords and property managers, with Australia and the UK the focus of expansion ambitions. The UK was its largest market.
‘‘We are looking to bring in more customers and larger customers,’’ Wallace said. He declined to reveal the company’s annual revenues.
Heading international expansion from London, Wallace said that after working for a year for his father Jonathan’s commercial property development company, Wallace Developments, in Hawke’s Bay, he found he was more fascinated by technology and what technology could do for the commercial property sector.
Re-Leased customers have the option of integrating its software with Xero’s software. ‘‘This creates a gamechanging solution because the two systems can work together as if they are one,’’ Wallace said.
Major customers in New Zealand include NAI Harcourts, Barfoot & Thompson, APL, and Cameron and Ray White in Australia, and Collinson Hall and Commercial Property Partners in the UK.
Commercial property was facing unprecedented disruption from emerging technologies, Wallace said. In the property sector this is being called ‘‘prop tech’’.
Wallace said a lot of investment was taking place in prop tech around the world. ‘‘It’s about giving commercial property managers and landlords modern tools.’’
He said market rivals were expensive, cumbersome, outdated and had been designed for residential property rather than commercial property.
The company’s new shareholders brought extensive commercial experience, industry knowledge and connections to the company.
They included Gerard Gillespie, cofounder of Ezi Buy, and Kent Gardner and Paul Kendrick, partners in London private-equity real-estate business Evans Randall Investors.
Wallace said he expected to raise more money in the next 12 months, probably from private investors.
‘‘We won’t be listing on the sharemarket in the short term.’’