Brussels-based Smooved Raises €1.5 Million from Mediahuis

Brussels-based scale-up Smooved has raised €1.5 million in a funding round from Mediahuis Marketplaces, a division of European media group Mediahuis. Smooved develops software to increase customer satisfaction for real estate agents. With the additional funding, the company aims to continue growing and take its first steps towards international expansion.

Smooved was founded in 2019 by three young entrepreneurs and offers a range of software solutions that help real estate agents improve customer satisfaction, such as assisting buyers with their moving administration and collecting customer reviews on the HouseMatch platform. With the new funding of €1.5 million, Smooved plans to grow even faster and prepare for international expansion. The scale-up also plans to develop more services and products to better support agents.

According to Nathan Coox, co-founder and CEO of Smooved, the choice for Mediahuis was obvious. "The Marketplaces team at Mediahuis has been a sounding board for us since early 2020. In this way, we have built a solid relationship over the past three years. This has proven crucial in a funding environment that has become much more challenging for start-ups in the past six months. Of course, our strong and profitable growth trajectory was also a big plus." Coox emphasizes that the choice for Mediahuis is more than just a financial decision.

Nathan Coox, co-founder and CEO of Smooved: "We are excited to work with Mediahuis, a media giant with a strong reputation for investing in and supporting innovative digital companies in the PropTech sector, such as Zimmo and Zabun in Belgium and Jaap in the Netherlands. There are clear synergies between our companies that we can leverage to create added value for our customers and users. This investment confirms our vision and mission to transform the real estate sector with our groundbreaking technology and service. We are confident that with the expertise and network of Mediahuis, we can take Smooved to the next level and become the leading PropTech player in Europe."

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According to Patrick De Wachter, Corporate Development Director at Mediahuis Marketplaces, this investment fits perfectly within Mediahuis's diversification strategy.

Patrick De Wachter, Corporate Development Director at Mediahuis Marketplaces: "At Mediahuis Marketplaces, we strongly believe in the growth potential of the PropTech market in Europe. Smooved has the ideal set of products and services to become an essential player in this market. They not only relieve the consumer but also the agent, and also provide very valuable sales mandates to the agents. This unique combination puts them in the ideal position. Moreover, we strongly believe in the strong and driven team at Smooved to make this growth story come true."

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Impressive Growth Trajectory

Since its launch in early 2020, Smooved has had an impressive growth trajectory. The young company raised €400,000 during the lockdown from well-known tech funds such as imec.istart and Pitchdrive. Smooved now has over 20 employees and turned a profit in 2022. The start-up supports more than 20% of all monthly real estate transactions in Belgium and serves more than 1 in 8 agents in the country. Smooved has partnerships with all the largest real estate agent groups in the country, including Dewaele, Heylen Vastgoed, Immo Francois, Hillewaere, Century 21, and Living Stone.

Roel Druyts, CEO at Hillewaere: "Smooved Reviews has been a game-changer for us. It has helped us reduce friction in our processes and coach our sales team of agents. Thanks to Smooved Reviews, we can easily collect and display customer feedback on various platforms, which increases our reputation and visibility. We also use the feedback data to monitor our performance and improve our service quality. Smooved Reviews is an essential tool for any modern real estate agent who wants to grow their business."

The Brussels-based scale-up continues to innovate. Last summer, Smooved launched a new platform called HouseMatch, a kind of 'Tripadvisor for real estate agents'. This platform features hundreds of thousands of agent reviews. With the help of artificial intelligence, property owners are matched with the agents best suited to their property and personal expectations.