Following consolidated growth in its home market, South African prop-tech startup Flow has announced its expansion into Australia. Flow allows real estate agents and developers to easily advertise properties on social media.
Flow, founded in 2019 by Daniel Levy and Gil Sperling, goes straight to the source of the world’s largest social platforms to match people with property — Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Its API platform matches social media users with property by automating rental and seller listings, and driving pre-assessed leads straight to estate agents and landlords.
The startup was reporting impressive growth figures in August as it prepared to take on more funding to accelerate its growth. International expansion is one of its ambitious plans for the future, and it has already began with its launch in Australia.
Flow believes Australia has a latent opportunity, with 90,000 agents and a housing market worth $9 trillion. Flow has been used by 4,500 South African estate agents, accounting for 10% of the country’s agents, and has obtained US$2.4 million in funding from CRE Venture Capital, Kalon Venture Partners, and Vunani Capital in 2018 and 2019.
In the past year, Flow reached out to nine million South African buyers and tenants about agency brands and property listings, accounting for 40% of the country’s Facebook and Instagram users. According to Flow’s own statistics, the use of social media to sell property has increased by tenfold in the last year, and the startup is following this trend while developing a global solution for a global opportunity inside a property industry that has been relatively undisrupted to date.
“Surprisingly for such a progressive economy, Australia’s real estate industry suffers from similar dynamics and transformations that are happening to real estate markets like South Africa,” said Sperling.
“By rolling out Flow in Australia we’re grabbing the collar of an industry dragging its heels to propel it into the 21st century. Such a high percentage of people have one form of social media or another, so real estate agents and property developers really can’t afford to miss out on reaching that audience directly in an efficient way.”
Levy said Flow had put in a “huge amount” of research before committing to the expansion, and seen positive results during a testing period.
“Our tech was always designed for savvy agents and developers who are experts in their chosen areas, no matter whether that’s in Africa or elsewhere around the world. We’re launching in Australia with a distribution partner and actively looking at other markets where we can follow suit with a similar approach,” he said.
Integrations with Australian real estate CRMs AgentBox and Box+Dice, as well as a partnership with real estate management prop-tech MRI Software, will give Flow access to 6,300 Australian estate agent offices as the company expands its global footprint.