Zmyhome gets $400,000 to target buyers
Zmyhome, the local condominium and home listing marketplace, has received US$400,000 (12.8 million baht) in funding from Singapore-based venture capital KKFund to expand its reach to buyers and embrace artificial intelligence (AI) to accurately target advertising for sellers.
The company aims to become a multilisting property channel in Thailand over the next 2-3 years.
“The company predicts a pain point in Thailand as home and property sellers spend an average of 343 days to close a deal because of poor data quality. It takes only 37 days in Australia, 79 days in Britain and 46-55 days in the US,” said Natthapon Asswisessiwakul, founder of Zmyhome. com, a two-year-old home and condominium marketplace under Dtac Accelerate.
Zmyhome’s marketplace only allows listings from homeowners and property developers to reduce duplication and fake information.
This method will enable buyers to find the accurate information and better prices so they can buy or rent from property owners directly, he said.
The team also follows up with monthly updates of whether deals are closed or not.
There is no listing fee or commission fee for sellers and buyers.
“Our sellers can sell within an average of 90 days as buyers can find the property that suits their needs faster and they can make price comparisons in 30-60 minutes through the platform,” he said.
He said the company earns revenue from advertising, with the system allowing homeowners and property developers to advertise to target buyers. The conversion rate is as high as 10-15% as buyers are required to register.
After receiving funds from KKFund in its seed round, the company developed an English version to serve foreigners and expand to condominiums and homes for sale and rent in tourist cities.
The company will embrace AI and machine learning to gain insight into buyers’ habits. Zmyhome also uses Application Programming Interface (API) to enable property developers to update their data faster.
“We aim to become a multi-listing channel platform for any property in Thailand in 2-3 years,” he said.
In the US, 90% of property data comes from multi-listing channels.
This year, the company aims to sell 3,000 units, compared with 100 units last year. The company further aims to bring on 1.5 million new users per month in 2018, up from 300,000 per month last year.
Some 30 property developers are using its system, with 10 developers paying for advertising.
Koichi Saito, founder of KKFund said the company is interested in Southeast Asia and has mostly invested in seed and early stage startups.