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We Are Crowdfunding!

At ideal flatmate, we are set to launch a crowdfunding campaign in the coming days and are excited to give the opportunity of being owners in our business to thousands of our users.

Since launching in 2016, Rob and I have been determined to build a product that makes it easier for flatsharers to find compatible people to live with and make living in a houseshare as fun an experience as possible for the millions of sharers across the UK. We have achieved massive growth as a company over the past few years and now receive more than half a million users per month. The journey is still only just beginning though, and we are inviting our users to be part of the experience at a relatively early stage. 

You can find more information about the background to the campaign, the intended impact of the fundraise and our future plans below.

For now, it is crucial that you register your interest in taking part here.

This will give you early access to the campaign, allow you to invest as part of the private launch before Seedrs’ investors and the wider public take up the allocation. You will also be able to take advantage of the Enterprise Investment Scheme as part of this funding round, which gives investors substantial tax benefits. These can be read in full here.

If you have any questions about the campaign, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me at tom@idealflatmate.co.uk 

Introduction

ideal flatmate is an innovative proptech platform that matches flatsharers with compatible flatmates. Rather than focusing only on helping sharers find a property, ideal flatmate uses a sophisticated algorithm to recommend the most suitable flatmates based on the answers to 20 scientifically researched questions about lifestyle and living habits.

We launched in 2017 and have had more than 40,000 shared property listings in the past 6 months and our matching technology has proved its worth. People who have found a flatmate through ideal flatmate declared themselves 40% happier with their choice of living partners after six months than those who found them elsewhere.

Flatmate matching algorithm

The matching feature that brings together compatible groups of sharers into two or three bed properties has also opened up a new client base for ideal flatmate, allowing our flatsharers to access Built to Rent (BTR) and Co-Living property developments.

Intended impact

We are committed to making flatsharing as joyous an experience as possible and spread happiness amongst the 5 million people currently living in the private renters market in the UK. As more and more people rent (60% of Londoners will be renting by 2025), it becomes ever more crucial that there is a way for people to quickly, and cost-effectively, find flatmates with whom they will get along.

In just two years we have grown to become one of the flagship flatsharing sites in the UK, receiving more than 300,000 site visitors, 15,000 new property listings, and recently over 9,000 flatmate registrations, in a month.

Over the next 18 months our aim is to be the biggest flatsharing site in the country. We have launched our App in August 2019; with the further ability to create a tenancy digitally and to transact via the site planned to be launched in early 2020.

Our product has global potential and preparations are underway to launch into Europe next year.

Substantial accomplishments to date

We have grown rapidly in the last two years and, having initially focused on London, we’ve now successfully launched in six additional UK cities.

We are working with a number of the largest Co-living/BTR property developers in the country as paying clients. Thanks to our innovative feature that brings together groups of sharers, we are well placed to benefit from the very rapid growth of the BTR sector in the UK, where 140,000 properties will be available within the next two years.

Flatshare stats

We have also brought together a world class management team and investor pool, with a Board made up of people with a wealth of experience in the property, tech and startup sectors. Our culture of innovation is also one instilled in our team of employees and the enthusiasm fizzing from all the members of our team is a key strength of the business.

Use of proceeds

On completion of this funding round, we will have the capital that we believe is necessary to become the largest flatsharing site in the UK. Resource allocation will be split 50% marketing, 30% technical development/product improvement and 20% towards continuing to hire a world class team.

Given our experience and key learnings over the past 2 years, we are able to map out a clear route to growing the platform in the UK via our tried and tested digital marketing channels, improvements to our CRO and marketing automation campaigns, the continued growth of our brand ambassador programme, and the deployment of further brand building pieces.

The product we have built has global potential – the problem of finding compatible housemates is experienced in every major city in the world. Far from being alleviated, this problem is growing as more people are renting for longer. Work has already been done to explore global growth opportunities and this will be accelerated after the completion of the round.