Investment and M&A Roundup: Scout24 Acquires Fotocasa

This week's roundup begins with a major coup for Scout24 as it enters the Spanish market...

Europe: Scout24 acquires Fotocasa Group from EQT after Adevinta divestment

Fotocasa Group, consisting of the Spanish real estate marketplaces Fotocasa and Habitaclia, has been acquired by Germany's Scout24.

Fotocasa Group, also comprising of Fotocasa Pro, Datavenues, Witei, and Inmoweb, previously sat within the Adevinta Spain segment—acquired by EQT on the understanding that Scout24 would re-acquire it soon afterwards. Fotocasa will continue to operate with its independent branding.

Tony Blamey, managing director at Fotocasa Group, said:

"For Fotocasa, joining Scout24 opens a new chapter of growth and innovation. With Scout24's technological expertise and longstanding sector experience, we are ideally positioned to futher enhance our value proposition for professionals and property seekers in Spain.

Ralf Weitz, CEO at Scout24, said:

"Spain is one of the most dynamic real estate markets in Europe and a strong strategic fit for Scout24. Together with Fotocasa, we aim to expand our product and data capabilities, simplify cross-border market access and further accelerate digitisation and AI-driven solutions in Spain."

Hjem.no announces pre-tax profitability in first full year of operations

Hjem.no, a challenger portal in Norway, says it delivered a pre-tax profit of NOK 1 million (€89k) in its first full year of operations, delivering 3x revenue in 2025.

The turnaround comes after Hjem lost NOK 40 million (€3.5 million) in 2024.

Hjem, meaning Home in Norwegian, has taken on the mammoth task of competing against the clear market leader, Finn, part of Vend. The challenger portal works with brokerage chains across the country, representing approximately half of the Norwegian housing market, with particularly high coverage in greater Oslo.

Veslemøy Tvedt Fredriksen, CEO at Hjem.no, said:

"When housing ads are published on Hjem, buyers have the opportunity to discover and explore the homes in new and engaging ways. At the same time as we offer innovative solutions on the marketplace itself, we provide targeted marketing in social media and editor-controlled Norwegian media. Digital visualization and marketing are developing rapidly, and we are experiencing that more and more brokers are using the solutions from Hjem as a natural part of their housing marketing.

"With everything that is happening in technology development and AI, we see many exciting opportunities ahead. We look forward to developing the services and collaboration with customers further, so that Hjem is established as a necessary and natural alternative in the housing ad market over time." [Translated from Norwegian]

French portal EtreProprio acquired by the second-largest banking group in France

The French real estate marketplace challenger EtreProprio has been acquired by the second-largest banking group in France.

Banque Populaire and Caisse d'Epargne, under the Group name BPCE, announced the acquisition of Etreproprio this week. Groupe BPCE serves 35 million customers in 50 countries, with €25.7bn of net banking income in 2025. The Group services over 20% of the finance raised in France, according to company figures.

EntreProprio is a housing marketplace with over 750,000 ads on its portal, across residential, commercial and land. The portal is free-to-list for agents.

North America: Zillow announces share repurchase worth $1.25 Billion

The Zillow Group Board of Directors has authorised the repurchase of up to an additional $1.25 billion in aggregate of its Class A common stock or Class C capital stock.

In a press release, Zillow said the move signals "long-term confidence" in its model.

Zillow has already repurchased $626 million of shares since the turn of the year, with approximately $1.3 billion earmarked for further share buybacks.

Jeremy Hofmann, Chief Financial Officer at Zillow Group, said:

"Our recent share repurchases and today's authorisation reflect our continued confidence in our strategy, financial strength and long-term opportunity to drive sustainable profitable growth over time. We believe this is an opportune time to leverage our strong cash position to return capital to shareholders while continuing to invest in growing our housing super app."

Latin America: Propi raises $4.2 million, targets international expansion

Propi, a proptech platform building digital infrastructure for residential real estate across Latin America, has raised a $4.2 million seed round.

Investors include regional strategic real estate and financial institutions, family offices, and venture capital firms such as Second Century Ventures.

Propi is building what it describes as LATAM's first cross-border residential marketplace. The platform is designed to enable buyers in its existing markets, including El Salvador, Guatemala, and Panama—and soon in additional countries such as Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and Costa Rica—to purchase property across borders, supported by integrated financing and compliance capabilities.

José Mario Ávila, CEO and Co-founder of Propi, said:

“Residential real estate across underserved Latin American markets represents a $45 billion annual market opportunity and, when combined, ranks second only to Mexico in transaction volume within the region.

"Yet the majority of transactions still happen offline. We are building the digital backbone of the region’s property ecosystem, connecting developers, financial institutions, landlords and buyers into a unified platform."

Eduardo Francés, Co-Founder and COO, added:

"Our mission is to digitize the entire transaction lifecycle. By combining proprietary market data, local developer partnerships and embedded financial services, we are creating a unified transaction and financing framework that integrates discovery, underwriting, compliance and closing within a single operating environment."

Propi has raised a total of $7 million since its foundation in 2023. The company has facilitated more than $300 million in digital property transactions

United Kingdom: Rightmove narrowly avoids FTSE 100 exit

Rightmove has avoided falling out of the FTSE 100 after being included on the shortlist of possible drop-outs from one of the UK's most prestigious stock market indices.

FTSE Russell, a subsidiary of the stock exchange that produces, maintains, licenses, and markets stock market indices, predicted Rightmove would drop out alongside the airline operator Easyjet.

Rightmove retained its position despite continued share price drops since November, following a trading update which revealed it is planning to spend £60 million over three years on AI and product development that would impact profits. The portal operator's current market capitalisation is GBP 3.3 Bn.

By comparison, Rightmove's highest market capitalisation since the global pandemic was achieved in December 2021 (GBP 6.72 Bn). Its next highest market cap since then was in July 2025 (GBP 6.27 Bn).

According to FTSE data, Rightmove's market cap makes it 98th out of 100 companies. However, share prices ticked up circa 5% this week.

Dwelly raises $92M as it continues UK expansion

The property management startup Dwelly has raised $92.4 million (GBP 69.5 million) in combined equity and debt.

Dwelly operates an aggressive acquisition-focused strategy that rolls up independent lettings agents in the UK into its AI-driven rollup model.

Dwelly has acquired no fewer than nine independent businesses since 2024, scaling to over 10,000 properties under management in under two years.

Online Marketplaces interviewed Dwelly in January 2025. Read it here.