Speedhome raises RM7 million in Series A funding

PETALING JAYA: Property rental platform Speedhome has raised RM7 million in a Series A funding backed by insurers Allianz Malaysia Bhd and regional venture capital firm Gobi Partners, with the fund to be capitalised on Speedhome’s regional expansion and tech advancements.

Speedhome CEO Wong Whei Meng said this investment signals promising support from the market for Speedhome.

“This fund will help us kick-start our regional expansion in Bangkok and accelerate our efforts towards making Speedhome as the region’s super app for property investors. Having esteemed investors like Allianz Malaysia and Gobi Partners to join us is a vote of confidence towards our vision to offer holistic technology-driven solutions for the property industry.”

Amid the challenging circumstances last year, Speedhome managed to soften the adverse impact of the pandemic on the property industry with the introduction of its Virtual Viewing and Homerunners services that addressed the restrictions posed by the various movement control orders.

Moreover, Speedhome recorded more than 160% year-on-year growth in gross written premium contribution to Allianz Malaysia in 2020 compared with 2019, thus proving its ability to grow even in the new norm and becoming a gamechanging platform for the currently strained property investment industry. This growth was driven by strong consumer demand for Zero Deposit rental homes that allow qualified tenants to save a large amount on rental deposits.

Speedhome reported that it has helped tenants free up a total of RM37 million over the years through zero deposit rental.

To date, Speedhome has over 575,000 app downloads and over 700,000 tenant enquiries in total.

An increasing number of landlords have turned to Speedhome, joining the Zero Deposit trend in exchange for a better rental yield. The platform enables landlords to secure a tenant fast while protecting their rental properties through insurance, better than conventional deposits.

With more than 28,000 listings, Speedhome is looking to expand this number to meet the ever-growing demand from tenants.

Gobi Partners chairman Thomas G. Tsao said Speedhome is one of its first investments for Gobi’s SuperSeed Fund II; in fact, the company was one of the winners of its SuperSeed II Championship last year.

Speedhome and Allianz jointly developed Zero Deposit and Landlord Insurance upon embarking on their partnership in 2017.

Speedhome aims to expand regionally to 10 other cities in the next five years, namely Bangkok, Manila, Jakarta, Taipei, Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi, Melbourne, Sydney, Hong Kong, and Singapore.