Propseller, Singapore’s proptech startup, raises $12m in Series A round

Singapore-headquartered proptech start-up Propseller announced raising $12 million in Series A funding led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India.

The round saw participation from existing investors Hustle Fund, Iterative, and Rapzo Capital, and new investors Partech, ICCP SBI, Vulpes Ventures and Redbadge Pacific. Noticeably, the round also saw participation of a dream-list of prominent PropTech founder such as Jani Rautiainen (Co-founder, PropertyGuru), Marta Higuera (Co-founder, OpenAgent), Steffen Wicker (Co-founder and CEO, Homeday), and Tushar Garg (Co-founder and CEO, Flyhomes).

Founded in 2018, Propseller is a tech-powered real estate agency employing in-house salaried agents backed by technology and centralized operations. The model enables Propseller to control every aspect of a real estate transaction and to offer consumers the most transparent and reliable way to sell a property for a commission as low as one percent – half the market rate in Singapore.

The funds will enable Propseller to scale its core business model, expand its line-up of services and explore overseas markets. The 50 people company plans to hire 200 new people across the marketing, operations, product, engineering, and sales and real estate functions.

In October 2020, Propseller raised US$1.2 million Seed funding from Hustle Fund, Iterative, XA Network, Rapzo Capital, Stein Jakob (Co-founder, Lazada) and Ben Neve (Founder, Dot Property). In 2021, Propseller observed a 1,000% growth of its revenue year-over-year and reached profitability.

“We believe that people deserve extraordinary service when selling their home, which often represents 70% or more of their wealth. Yet, consumers are still dealing with property agents who close on average less than 2 sales transactions per year each while generally charging a two percent commission. Our business model addresses this industry challenge by elevating our service for consumers while charging a lower cost,” said Adrien Jorge, Founder and CEO of Propseller.

Commenting on the investment, Carmen Yuen, General Partner, Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, said, “We are excited to back Adrien and his team as Propseller is revolutionizing the way we transact our homes in a more cost and time-efficient way, using technology and data. We’ve followed the Propseller team for more than 2 years now and they have demonstrated impressive resilience and growth over the years. We look forward to partnering and supporting them as they continue their exciting journey to transform real estate.”