How Habiteo raised €3m barely a year after launch
Our client, Habiteo, just closed a €3m Series A with Serena Capital, a leading French VC, and we are really happy to share this news with you! We are all the more happy that the company has been around barely a year before this operation.
But what is Habiteo?
Thanks to its amazing content generation engine and end-to-end sales funnel, Habiteo helps real estate developers sell their properties before they are built. Yep, that’s a thing in Europe…
The technology developed by Habiteo produces premium content in order to sell a future (i.e. not built yet) property online, all for a really low price.
The package sold by Habiteo includes an online visit, interactive 3D models, a description of the neighborhood, extra information (transportation, schools, local shops…), real time price and availability (a revolution for this industry), and the digitalization of all the contractual elements.
Besides selling the premium content to a real estate developer who will use it on its own website, Habiteo showcases it on its own platform Habiteo.com in order to generate leads.
Last but not least, they usually package a CRM-like backoffice to their whole offer, so that the real estate developer’s sales team can coordinate and measure the transformation of the leads provided by the platform.
You have probably heard Habiteo’s “3D virtual visit” pitch ten times already. From overly enthusiastic engineering graduates eager to start a business and seed funded start-ups with a few proof of concept contracts and close to zero revenue. You probably heard it and thought “yeah, that’s the typical good-bad idea that no one will manage to exploit because it’s a nice-to-have feature with no business opportunity behind it”.
… but there is in fact a massive business opportunity for an all-in-one online sales solution, and Habiteo is going to capture it all.
Indeed: virtual houses do not sell like they used to
In France for instance, in order to secure funding from its investors, a real estate developer has to sell 50% of the future properties before laying the cornerstone of the construction project. And it’s not easy to sell a house or a flat that has not been built yet. Plus, the economy being what it is, there are fewer buyers on the market and they are becoming more demanding.
Not to mention that real estate development is probably one of the last industry still stuck in the paper/excel/phone era and will benefit immensely from the dedicated content generation and sales solution that Habiteo provides.
So, what makes Habiteo stand out and in a position to capture this market? The truth is, Habiteo has two really unfair assets.
The first one is obviously the CEO of the company, Jeanne Massa, former COO of La Fourchette (acquired €150m by TripAdvisor), former CMO of PizzaHut in France, and probable distant relative of Genghis Kahn but with beautiful blond hair. Jeanne is a master at implementing processes, an amazing salesperson and an inspirational manager.
Habiteo’s second asset is its fairly superior technology, developed by the CTO, Julien Frelat, who used to manage R&D teams of 20+ developers and who, during his free time, coded none the less than a Gameboy emulator that hit 8M downloads and a 3D engine to port video games on Silverlight, awarded by Microsoft. And all that while being a chill dude.
Consequence: Habiteo’s traction is off the charts. In less than a year, Habiteo’s technology has been tested by pretty much every real estate developer in town (among which Bouygues, K&B…). Generating an average revenue traction of over 30% per month.
No wonder that they caught the eye of Serena Capital, who invested €3m in Habiteo barely one year after its launch. Serena Capital, a leading French VC, usually picks start-ups in later stages, but decided to make an exception for Habiteo. Is it because they know the industry quite well, having invested in FinalCad (q&a software for construction projects)? Or is it because they remembered the role Jeanne Massa played in the success of La Fourchette, a past investment of theirs? Probably a bit of both. In any case, well done, Serena, because the competition on this investment opportunity was ferocious!
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Are you next?
At Chausson Finance, we match smart money with great companies. In 2014, we helped 9 carefully selected companies to raise a total of €26m. In 2015, Habiteo’s Series A is our fourth operation, following:
- Alkemics €5m Series A with Index Ventures,
- Take Eat Easy’s €6m Series A with Rocket Internet, DN Capital and Piton Capital
- Cheerz’s €6m Series A with Serena Capital
Want to get in touch and be advised for your upcoming fundraising? We’d love to hear from you. To get in touch, you can set a meeting with me at Ladurée or message me on Linkedin
You can also check out our previous article about the 5 key ingredients to raise €2m and more.
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