Proptech start-up Settled lands £1.2m investment

Settled, the Startups 100-featured property technology (proptech) company, has closed £1.2m in funding led by Connect Ventures and Piton Capital.

Founded by siblings Gemma and Paul Young in 2014, Settled enables homeowners to manage everything from the listing to the sale of their property for a one-off fee of £499. It claims to cut the time it takes to sell a home in half, reducing the fall-through rate from 33% to just 7% and saving users an average of £5,000.

Since launching in 2016, £250m worth of homes have been sold through the platform, saving its customers an estimated £5m in estate agency fees.

The funding follows a £1m seed funding round from Silicon Valley-based 500 Startups in July 2016 and will be used to further develop its property transaction platform to reach more customers. Online estate agencies are predicted to grow from 5% market share today to capture up to 50% of the market by 2025.

Gemma Young commented: “We’re passionate about creating platforms and technologies which empower a new and growing segment of consumers who simply want buying and selling homes to be more straightforward, modern and digital.

“Think about what’s been achieved when companies like Uber applied fixes to the taxi industry allowing us, now, to travel at the click of a button….We all strive to own our own home and to move along the property ladder but we tend to dread the processes we have to go through to get there. We’re focused on tackling the problems; creating a next-level approach to buying and selling homes which will help everyone feel more ‘Settled’.”

Sitar Teli, partner at Connect Ventures, said: “We’re excited to back Settled – it’s already demonstrating the power of software to transform the experience of selling and buying a home and we think its platform will shape next-generation transaction models in property.”