South Central Ventures – invested 120 thousand pounds in the Croatian/UK real estate startup Homible, the VC reported. The investment is also supported by undisclosed business angels and will be used by Homible to strengthen their team in Croatia and to strengthen their position on the UK market.
“We’re excited to back this committed team of experienced entrepreneurs on their new venture. They are not aiming to reinvent a wheel, but rather to develop a service to make our every day’s lives easier. I’m looking forward to starting using Homible and I’m sure many other people are as well,” said Jure Mikuž, Managing Partner at South Central Ventures.
Founded in 2017 by Stephen Geran (CEO), Josip Medic (CTO) and Josip Bojcic, Homible is an innovative prop-tech* company that changes the way how homes and property are managed on the internet. Simpler, it is the platform that modernizes and digitize the real east business that functions as a Facebook for properties. The idea behind this startup was born by the need of helping homeowners, tenants and landlords to better manage their property. By integrating existing solutions and numerous innovative features Homible has built a unique experience that is similar to Facebook.
Reportedly, Homible enables property owners to reduce the time spent either managing or worrying about the household administration. Different services, such as energy, insurance, broadband, mobiles, vehicles, pets, etc., can be purchased, managed and administered from inside the Homible platform and it is all part of a much larger “Master plan” of creating the new age of the property.
The platform was launched at the beginning of 2018 and already, according to the company statement, is largely popular and used in UK. The investment, as stated by Stephen Gerna, CEO and co-founder at Homible, gives the startup a great foundation to build their grand vision.
“It’s great to have the backing of South Central Ventures at this early stage. It gives us the foundations to build our grand vision for the property industry. In the short term, the investment will be used to build our team and market the product to drive early user acquisition”, stated Geran.
SCV on the other hand is a venture capital focused on tech companies in the Balkans. At the moment, SCV has offices in Belgrade, Zagreb and Skopje.
The € 40 million fund is dedicated primarily to early stage and growth investments. Within the fund’s ‘seed pocket’, € 1.5 million is allocated for investments of up to € 100 000 per company. The majority of the fund is allocated for early stage and growth investments of up to € 3 million per company. These investments are intended to fuel the international business expansion and growth of the most promising tech startups that can show traction and prove their potential to “make it big”.
*Prop-tech it’s a collective term used to define startups offering technologically innovative products or new business models for the real estate markets. In short, it stands for all the companies that are taking on the real estate industry to make it better, spurred by an ever-changing digital landscape and new consumption patterns.