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Flow is a South African proptech marketing platform that enables realtors to automate their marketing activities. Fresh off a $4.5 million funding round, the startup has its sights set on the European and American proptech markets.
TechCabal spoke with Gil Sperling, one of Flow’s co-founders, about their unique product, success in the South African market, plans to expand into the highly competitive European and American markets, and more.
TC: Tell us a little more about Flow and the problem you’re trying to solve with your product offering.
GS: Before Flow, my partner and I had an Edtech business that successfully expanded into Publicis, a French listed telecommunications company. The business developed technology to automate marketing on Facebook and Instagram, but for big brands. As a result, I realized that while this ad technology was effective, it only served large corporations and not smaller entrepreneurs like real estate agents.
My partner and I started Flow to help real estate businesses grow and market themselves in ways that other businesses can. Unfortunately the property is very old and fragmented. Realtors are and will continue to play a big role in helping people find homes today, but they are going through the channels that all these other companies have been able to do in the last decade: digital channels and social channels. Channels cannot reach buyers and sellers. media.
Other companies are building consumer relationships and trust in these channels. This is an important part of marketing and growth that real estate agents cannot do.
So our product is essentially a proptech marketing platform, enabling agencies, property developers and agencies to automatically market and reach people on these digital channels.
TC: What challenges did Flow face in trying to solve this problem in South Africa?
GS: Fundamentally, the real estate sector is very difficult to transform for the better because of the many moving parts and fragmentation. We deal with thousands of agents and hundreds of cops at scale, so there’s an education gap that needs to be closed. I am doing the best I can. So there is a paradigm shift that we are challenging, but we are moving forward.
If you look at the last five years, it has changed and grown dramatically. South Africa remains relatively conservative and has a small capital market. We appreciate the growth, but unlike more vibrant capital markets like the US and European markets that actually support the proptech sector and have the capital behind proptech, South Africa No, it’s a challenge for us.
And of course there is technology that we built to solve this problem and like any tech start-up we iterate on it and release products all the time in the hope that it will solve the problem. Yes, and often not.
However, through all these challenges, we believe there is an opportunity to provide viable solutions through product offerings that make real estate transactions more efficient and faster for agents.
TC: Flow recently raised $4.5 million. How does this contribute to your global expansion ambitions?
GS: We will use the funds in two ways. Double your product by expanding your engineering team. We have a lot to develop and build, and a lot of money is spent there.
It also has a global growth strategy that relies heavily on B2B distribution in practice, integrating with real estate portals globally to create offsite advertising and provide agents with social media exposure.
This is a great value add enabler for the portal and it is how we grow abroad. Apart from that, there are marketing, growth, sales and business development in which we invest money.
TC: Raising capital in a VC recession is not easy. Do you think that feat justifies your business model?
GS: Of course. I believe it is under these circumstances that real diamonds are forged. We think it works very well. I think it will only be invested in more investable companies as capital is depleted and deployed more conservatively.
TC: Compare and contrast your current presence in the South African and Australian markets with your planned European and American markets.
GS: One thing in common is that we still have real estate agents who are an important part of buying or renting a property. Because, as I said, it’s a very big deal. It’s also meaningful, stressful, emotional, professional, rational, and you’ll always want to trade with someone who can guide you through such a large deal.
In the same way that technology is revolutionizing and transforming industries, agents are not going away in an industry like real estate. They are enhanced and enabled by technology. That’s the world we see in Australia and Europe as we expand.
But the difference in markets is that some markets are much bigger, like Australia for example, and that’s why they’re interesting markets for us. In Australia, when you sell a house, the seller is the person who puts out the marketing and spin to sell their house.Especially in the metro, a market where demand is much greater than supply.
For context, Johannesburg has large oversupply in some areas and dynamics change over time. In australia there is much more demand and much less supply the seller is putting out marketing material from he’s $5,000 to he’s $10,000 so it’s a much richer market but it’s a very competitive market There is also.
TC: There’s a lot of proptech competition in Europe and America. What makes Flow different from other competitors?
GS: I think there are several. First, we have a great understanding of these channels and what drives consumer attention and engagement, which is why we place so much emphasis on the design of our marketing materials. Our technology also seems to outperform our competitors when it comes to automating their advertising. We believe that you will grow faster with
Also, my partner and I have been in the industry since the early days of Facebook. And we’ve been a big part of that journey. So few people in the world have the experience that we have in this industry. It’s our property.
TC: What are your predictions for next year’s most prominent proptech trends?
GS: Buyers and sellers will actually use digital channels to build trust and find agents and properties. People will use these channels more to build relationships and find homes.
And digital experiences such as virtual tours are becoming increasingly immersive. Over a year from now, he’ll be experiencing his new home in digital form before going to see it, not just in pictures.
Another trend I see is that realtors who are tech-savvy and embrace technology like marketing flow automation, good CRM, lead management, etc. will perform better and grow much faster than others. about it. A more traditional agent. Agent and buyer experiences are also improved as they are more accurately targeted and matched.
TC: Finally, are there any upcoming product features in Flow that you would like to share with our readers?
GS: We have a big roadmap. We’re working on automating more channels like Tiktok and digital out of home, which we’re already doing, but scaling. Imagine an agent with a small marketing budget but neither the skills nor the time to do it. Never mind the outdoor signage. With just two clicks, you can list profiles and get your face displayed on a big board on a busy street in the middle of the city.
Yes, these are some of the features we are working on. There are some other interesting things in the pipeline that I can’t talk about right now, but will share them soon!
Note: Interview slightly edited for clarity
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