Boomin, a property portal founded by the ex-boss of the somewhat controversial Purplebricks, has this week called in liquidators after its latest funding round did not prove fruitful.
The portal, which has 65 people on its books, was launched by Michael Bruce as a competitor to portals such as Rightmove and Zoopla.
It had received substantial investment, but the additional £6m in equity it required did not arrive, leading to the decision to bring in accountancy firm BK Plus to handle its insolvency.
According to a Sky News report, “a combination of the UK housing market slowdown and the sudden dearth of funding for early-stage companies” are reasons to blame for the portal’s struggles.
Michael Bruce, founder of Boomin, said:
“Our move to a fee-paying, revenue-generating model from April 2022 coincided with the start of the economic slowdown and the drying up of funding.
In line with most tech company scale-ups we overhauled our business model to reflect the new market conditions, sharpening our focus on our key differentiated products and improving efficiencies to bring forward the point where we reach breakeven and generate positive cashflow.
Notwithstanding a successful partial raise in the spring and my own continued financial backing of Boomin there was always a need for a follow-on external funding round to secure our pathway to profitability.
While we had a plan, support from a number of existing shareholders and a solution with a new investor, the progressively worsening economic situation, combined with increasing uncertainty in the housing market, has resulted in us being unable to get the necessary funding round over the line in time to enable us to continue.”
Boomin reportedly had 8,000 agents using its services. Bruce is also tied up with charity Agents Together, which it is said will not be impacted by the change of circumstances.