Multi-Million Funding Rounds for UK Property Imaging Platform Giraffe360 and Finnish iBuyer Rive

The cash has been officially splashed for two exciting startups—with a total of €36m stumped up for Giraffe360 in the UK and Rive in Finland.

UK-Based "no-brainer" Giraffe360 Raises £13.2m

360 imaging and virtual tour platform Giraffe360 has raised £13.2m cash and a further £5m in long-term loans from both existing and new investors led by Founders Fund—the US-based firm with successes including Airbnb, Spotify, SpaceX (Elon Musk) and Paypal.

The decision was labelled a no-brainer by Founders Fund lead Delian Asparouhov.

Giraffe360 is a subscription service that provides agents with 360 cameras and access to AI that creates 360 images of properties, 98%- accurate floor plans and virtual tours from one set of images.

The company describes itself as offering "3 estate agent services from one camera".

Giraffe360 was founded in Latvia in 2019 but moved its HQ to London soon after CEO Mikus Opelts raised £1m in seed funding. The latest funding round coincides with the launch of Giraffe360's latest camera, which is faster, more powerful and lighter than the previous iteration.

Founders Fund principal Delian Asparouhov said:

"After being involved in a number of PropTech startups such as OpenDoor, we’ve recognised that some of these tech forward companies aren’t having their needs met, which means that the mass market definitely isn’t having their needs met.

"Giraffe360 was a no-brainer, and is really well suited to meet the needs of the market from both the hardware and software front."

Helsinki Proptech Rive Raises €23m in Series A Investment Round

Finnish startup Rive has raised €23 million in Series A funding as it looks to scale its end-to-end proptech platform. The round was led by IDC Ventures with participation from existing investors.

The company says it will use the invested cash to develop its platform and fund further international growth—the company currently operates in Finland, Spain, and Poland. Rive will also work on a rebranding exercise to boost awareness.

Rive (formerly Kodit.io) was founded in 2017 and was one of the first European iBuyers. It makes switching home simple by providing liquidity to sellers, and fully renovated, 'move-in-ready' homes for buyers—while real estate agent customers get a unique combination of tech tools and products to give better service to their customers during the transaction.

The platform provides customers with real-time market insights, instant cash offers, and renovation services delivered by local real estate professionals who guide them at every step.

Rive also offers a novel rent-to-own novel homeownership solution that has received over 30,000 registrations since launch.

Kalle Salmi, founder and CEO at Rive, said:

"We are very excited to partner with IDC Ventures to help us in our ambition to radically improve the consumer experience in the housing market and help millions of people to change their lives and properties. With this fresh funding and a new brand, we are ready to accelerate organic and inorganic growth in Europe".