Bien'Ici Receives €23 Million Investment from its Agent Members

The French agent-owned property portal Bien'Ici has announced that it has received an investment of €23 million from its agent members to further digitise its product. Founded in 2015 to be an independent real estate portal, Bien'Ici is owned by The National Federation De L'Immobilier (FNAIM) which is the agent association of France. Unlike fellow agent-owned property portal OnTheMarket, Bien'Ici is not a public company and must go to its members for investment.

According to local agent publication l'Agence, the portal is currently the third largest portal in the country having recorded 110 million visits in 2020, an increase of 30% on the previous year. Company CEO David Benbassat told l'Agence that the aim of this latest round of member investment is to make the portal the leading platform in the country in 3 years by developing new functionalities, hiring new talent, spending on marketing and brand awareness as well as looking at external growth opportunities.

The portal was the first to introduce French property hunters the possibility of searching for their new home by a region's internet connectivity back in November and the portal that rejects the 'Uberization' of the estate agent profession will be looking to come up with more innovation to challenge the likes of Axel Springer-owned SeLoger and Adevinta-owned Leboncoin.