Realla closes £1.5m for ‘Google-style’ commercial property search engine

A start-up that plans to address the “fragmented way the commercial property industry is marketed” has secured £1.5m backing from a group of property and tech investors led by Kirsh Family Office and Lloyd Dorfman’s Esselco Group.

Founded in 2014 by former property investor Andy Miles and Globrix co-founder Ian Parry, Realla offers a search engine for commercial properties and claims to offer the largest index of available commercial property in the UK; aggregated from over 1,000 sources.

The platform went live eight months ago and has five of the top 10 commercial agents signed up to its software.

Miles and Parry will use the investment to build out the Realla search engine user base and there are also plans to invest in new technology to strengthen their offering.

Miles and Parry commented:

“Realla is answering a fundamental need to modernise the way commercial real estate is marketed and discovered online. Creating a ‘Google-style’ search experience for commercial property is part of that need. Realla aspires to become the most comprehensive commercial property website, making information more transparent and helping the market to become more liquid”

Philip Lewis of Kirsh Family Office said he was “delighted to continue investing in this exciting young business”.