An online letting agent Urban has joined in a merger with Tepilo and Emoov, which will be the first consolidation in the online sector and will help Yopa take its place as second in the market behind Purplebricks.
This new company has already received a total of £15m in new funding, with investments from Channel 4 acknowledging a televised advertising campaign.
Emoov's Russell Quirk will be heading the newly merged business with the help of a management team that includes Urban's Adam Male, and other members like Frank McGlade and Lucy Milne, and formerly of Just Eat, Guy Halfhead who was the Bookatable, and Ivan Ramirez, who was formerly an employee at Groupon.
Although these big hitters will be joining in the new entity, there hasn't been a sign from Tepilo CEO, Nick Charnock that he will be joining in on the new team. It's also not clear whether the three brands will continue to operate as their separate entities as well.
The least known of the three, Urban has recently announced it had 28 sales properties listed on Rightmove and 316 rental homes. Emoov reported having 2,206 and Tepilo with 2,253, both cases in sales properties exclusively.
Quirk said of the deal: “This is a pivotal move in the fast-growing digital sales and lettings sector and is designed to place us as one of the absolute winners in the space.
“We’ve joined together two of the best known fixed fee estate agency businesses to make the ‘Number Two’ contender, along with one of the UK’s most established online lettings companies, and a war-chest of £15m in new cash and media power.
“Strategically, this is a powerful combination and with the very best senior team to deliver on our plan to improve and further dominate the estate agency industry.”
TV presenter and Tepilo founder Sarah Beeny, said: “This deal creates a truly powerful partnership of property experts that are focused upon doing right by the customer and improving the home buying, selling and rental process for all.
“I’m truly delighted with the combination of the Emoov, Tepilo and Urban families to form such a valuable proposition.”
Vinay Solanki, head of Channel 4’s Commercial Growth Fund, said: “This is an exciting time for Emoov and presents a great opportunity for Channel 4 to get involved with disrupting a fast-moving and competitive sector in digital transition.
“We’re looking forward to working with Emoov on their first TV campaign as a newly merged major industry player to help the brand achieve the reach and awareness that only TV advertising has proven to effectively deliver at scale.”
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