Brasil's AoCubo finalizes seed round led by Simon Baker and Brian Requarth

São Paulo-based AoCubo, closes a financing round led by industry leaders Simon Baker and Brian Requarth.

The emerging proptech startup, AoCubo, is in a competitive landscape among Brazil's already established companies such as Grupo Zap and Loft, who have raised over $100M. But, AoCubo has reined its focus on the sector of new developments with an exceptional business model, waging on the 'uberization' of the real estate market.

AoCubo's model is based on generating, screening, and matching leads with one of their 9,000+ independent agents, all in one app. Users visiting AoCubo's website are able to access information on 100,000+ units available in São Paulo's from 90+ developers.

The company has recently introduced mortgage and remodeling for its clients, as well as its own digital bank platform, AoCubo Banco Digital, where 100% of the commissions are paid. AoCubo keeps a percentage of the agents' commission, only after the transaction is completed.

AoCubo's co-founder and CEO, Ronnie Sang said that his company is focused on creating value and efficiency for the entire chain, "We are offering a great service for buyers. We are optimizing the agents' time by screening leads, and at the end of the day we are generating liquidity for the developers”.

Simon Baker of the CAV Investment Group and Brian Requarth from VivaReal have invested in AoCubo.

Simon Baker commented, “I am impressed by the work being done by Ronnie Sang and the team at AoCubo. They are attempting to re-write how real estate is bought and sold in the Brazilian market by ‘Uberizing’ the sales process. Their app driven business allows any Brazilian real estate agent, no matter which group they work for, to tap into the AoCubo lead generation network, close out deals and receive a healthy commission. 

 

“In essence, it allows sales agents to break free of being reliant on one lead source (a franchise brand) and to have multiple lead sources. This is no different to the independent driver who works for Uber and Cabify at the same time,” added Baker.

The CAV Investment Group is the private investment fund of Simon Baker, a long-time investor in and advisor to the online classifieds and marketplaces industry. Baker is the former CEO and MD of the REA Group in Australia.  Under his leadership, the REA Group grew from revenues of $4m, a loss of $6m and a market cap of $8m to revenues of $155m, a profit of $35m, and a market cap of $1bn.

“I like the efficiency AoCubo brings to the real estate transaction with the Uber-like mobile platform. With their large repository of new homes and streamlined process matching leads with agents ready to serve home buyers, they are well positioned to become a fintech enabled marketplace since transactions and commissions go through them. I am confident that Ronnie and his team will continue to innovate and grow the business," Said Brian Requarth.

Brian Requarth co-founded VivaReal and was the company's CEO from 2009 to July 2016 when he became Chairman. The company bootstrapped its operation and eventually raised over $74 million USD. Under his management, the team scaled to over 500 team members and acquired suahouse, a leading real estate CRM provider serving home builders.