M&A Roundup: TradeMe, Zimmo Group and OneDome

We have three acquisition deals to bring you this week from New Zealand, Belgium and the UK...

Oceania: New Zealand's TradeMe acquires 50% stake in media company Stuff Digital

TradeMe.nz, New Zealand's market-leading classifieds horizontal, has agreed to buy a 50% stake in Stuff Digital, which publishes the website stuff.co.nz and ThreeNews.

The terms of the acquisition remain undisclosed.

Stuff.co.nz is one of New Zealand's primary news sites. However, the acquisition deal does not include stakes in other publications, including The Press, The Post, and Sunday Star Times.

Anders Skoe, CEO at TradeMe, said:

"This acquisition will enable vendors and agents to reach an even wider pool of prospective buyers, while empowering buyers with every resource to navigate the property market."

Sinead Boucher, chief executive at Stuff Group, said:

"[The deal with Trade Me] provides brilliant new opportunities together, and for Stuff Group, continued investment in technology and talent for the future. It was important to me that we found the right partner at the right time in our growth strategy, protecting our fiercely independent media business which isloved and trusted by millions of New Zealanders."

Boucher will chair the new Stuff Digital Ltd Board while Skoe will also have a seat to ensure equal representation from both organisations.

Europe: Zimmo acquires Smooved to consolidate the Belgian market

Zimmo Group has acquired Belgian PropTech scale-up Smooved, following a prior minority investment by its parent company, Mediahuis, in 2023. The deal consolidates Zimmo’s position in transaction-adjacent services.

Zimmo Group Business Director Yves Vanderveken said:

"The integration of Smooved into Zimmo Group enables us to support real estate agents even better and to guide and unburden consumers in a smooth and transparent way throughout their real estate journey. This creates added value for both agents and consumers.

"Smooved offers a unique product portfolio, and through close collaboration with Zimmo, we are opening up new opportunities for innovation and growth within our real estate activities."

Founded in 2019, Smooved built a utility switching and meter transfer platform tailored to home movers and their agents. Its secondary product, HouseMatch, aggregates consumer reviews of real estate professionals, positioning itself as a vertical-specific alternative to Google reviews. According to the company, its services now support over 20% of real estate transactions in Belgium and partner with all major agency groups.

The acquisition includes buyouts of Smooved’s early backers—Pitchdrive, Imec.istart, and several business angels.

Founders Ignace Buelens and Nathan Coox are stepping down from operational roles as part of the handover.

Coox said:

“Six years ago, Smooved was just a few slides. Today, we are an indispensable PropTech partner for real estate agents and movers: we support more than one in five real estate transactions in Belgium, collaborate with all major real estate groups, have more reviews of Belgian real estate agents than Google, and assist the country’s largest utility providers with a significant portion of their customer acquisition.

"We are incredibly proud of this spectacular growth and grateful to everyone who has helped build this with relentless dedication. With the strong Smooved team and the added momentum of Zimmo, we look forward to the next growth phase—this time cheering from the sidelines.”

In the coming months, Smooved’s services, technologies, and staff will be integrated into Zimmo Group.

The acquisition adds to Zimmo’s existing service stack, which includes digital marketplaces Zimmo and Wortimmo, CRM suite Zabun, and real estate software tools aimed at agents and developers in Belgium and Luxembourg.

Zimmo is wholly owned by Mediahuis NV.

United Kingdom: OneDome acquires Trussle

UK-based proptech and fintech platform OneDome has agreed to acquire online mortgage broker Trussle—operating as Better.co.uk—from U.S.-based Better Home and Finance Holding Company, in a move designed to expand its vertically integrated homebuying proposition.

The transaction, which remains subject to final clearance by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), will see Trussle’s operations folded into OneDome’s existing suite of services, which bundle mortgage brokerage, conveyancing, and insurance into a single, fixed-price offering for homebuyers.

Founded in 2015, Trussle claims the title of the UK’s first end-to-end digital mortgage broker. It was acquired by Better in 2021 as part of the U.S. company’s international expansion strategy—one that has since faced significant operational and financial headwinds.

OneDome said the acquisition will strengthen its HomeBuyer Service proposition and accelerate its strategic target of supporting 10% of all residential property transactions in the UK within five years.

Babek Ismayil, founder and CEO of OneDome, said:

“This deal gives us greater firepower to serve homebuyers and deliver a best-in-class digital journey.

“We’re thrilled to welcome the Trussle team into the OneDome Group and look forward to building something even more impactful together.”

Post-completion, the combined group is expected to process over 1,100 property transactions each month and facilitate more than £3.5 billion in annual mortgage lending. The company will employ more than 230 staff, including 105 advisers across mortgage, insurance, and financial products.

Kevin Ryan, president and CFO of Better, said:

“We’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with OneDome throughout this process and are excited about their vision for the future. We wish the Trussle team every success as they enter this new chapter under OneDome’s leadership.”