Hoozing, a property tech startup based in Vietnam, announced that it has raised an undisclosed pre-Series A funding round from SmileGate Investment and other investors.
The investment, according to Hoozing CEO and co-founder Hai Le, will be used to make sure the business is ready to assist the needs of landlords and customers in the middle of COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our ultimate goal is to support landlords to find customers easily as some of them need cash for their business or just to stop paying their current mortgage. So, we are adding more functions to the app over time to achieve this purpose,” Hai Le explained.
The company will also use the fund to strengthen its current team, hiring more talent, and expand our business to more regions in Ho Chi Minh City.
“We see ourselves bringing more transparency to the market and accelerate the digitalising trend of property transactions by our platforms. We plan to cover more areas of Ho Chi Minh City and expand to Hanoi next year, but this depends on the global pandemic situation,” the CEO said.
Positioning itself as a “real estate supermarket 4.0”, Hoozing combines the use of data and agent network to help customers find the right deals easily and effectively.
Also Read: Power to the People: Vietnam’s Hoozing has a solution for solving rental market woes
Founded in 2015, it is backed by Expara Ventures through a seed funding round.
The company gained recognition when it took part in the SharkTank Vietnam reality show in 2018. According to a statement, the founders managed to convince the judges with the good offer but walked away from the big opportunity as there was no final agreement.
Despite walking out with no deal, Hoozing was regarded as the most favourite startup of one of the Sharks, Thai Van Linh, for their market understanding of the market and innovative technology products.
In March 2016, Hoozing took home the winning spot at the TOP100 Vietnam Regional Qualifier and exhibited among 99 other top APAC startups at Echelon Asia Summit 2016.
Hoozing claimed that it possesses more than 50,000 properties and 7,000 agents in its database.
SmileGate Investments itself is the corporate VC arm of South Korean gaming company SmileGate.
In a recent interview with Dealstreet Asia, the company announced plans to launch its second Vietnam-focussed fund.
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Image Credit: Hoozing
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