JP Morgan veteran wants to go international with property information
– Bonum felt the market did not have good enough products for early-stage property development. The consequence was that the company developed its own tool, says Sunde. Around three years later, the tool was spun out as a separate company, and Peder Sunde was brought in as managing director.
Placepoint trawls public information and refines it into gold for property developers. Now the company has raised capital and brought Marketer on board.
– In a property project, there are countless factors that can influence what a plot is worth. When a developer is considering developing a plot, it is useful to gain insight into everything from quick clay conditions to regulations, sight lines and neighbour relations, says Peder Sunde, managing director of Placepoint.
Placepoint describes itself as a proptech company, and is based in both Oslo and Sandefjord.
Springs out from Bonum
The company springs out from the property developer Bonum, which has invested in and developed residential projects since 2013.
– Bonum felt the market did not have good enough products for early-stage property development. The consequence was that the company developed its own tool, says Sunde.
Around three years later, the tool was spun out as a separate company, and Peder Sunde was brought in as managing director.
He has worked for JP Morgan and Bank of New York in London. At JP Morgan he was also Norway chief. Furthermore, he has worked for the pension company Gabler and for Adstate, which sells software to funeral directors.
– We spend staggering sums on property, but the reality is that many purchasing decisions are made in haste, and without having investigated all aspects of the property. Many people recognise this when it comes to buying a home. To a certain extent, it also applies in a professional context, says Sunde.
The idea is therefore to gather publicly available information in one database that users can access for a fee.
Priced at 55 million kroner
The company has now raised 5 million kroner in growth capital at a valuation of 55 million pre-money.
– It was with a certain tension that we started this funding round, he says. With a capital drought and uncertain times, we expected it to be challenging, says Sunde.
Nevertheless, the issue was oversubscribed.
Before the issue, Daimyo, the holding company of Espen Aubert, came in on the ownership side.
Aubert's fortune is valued by Kapital at 1.85 billion kroner.
However, over the past year, Aubert has become best known for a case that is not about investments in proptech.
In November 2021, it became known that he had given a private loan to Aylar Lie.
A few months later, he had to resign as chairman of the board of Mybank due to illegal financing activities.
Looking at Denmark and the Netherlands
Marketer enters with what is described as a modest ownership stake.
– It is very exciting to gain the trust of one of the market's most central proptech players, says Sunde.
– Over time, we envisage good synergies with such a player, Habhab follows up.
In addition to the issue amount, the company has received a loan from Innovasjon Norge of 4.4 million kroner.
This means that Placepoint now has around 10 million in the war chest.
– Now we have capital well into spring 2023. Now we will focus on commercial growth throughout the autumn before we increase further, says Sunde.
The customer list includes property developers such as Selvaag, Axer and Vestaksen.
– This is an expression of the fact that demand is very much present. Now we are opening the tap on sales and marketing, and naturally expect this to show on the bottom line, he says.
The company has around 30 customers and an ARR of almost 3 million kroner. The staff has grown from three employees in December last year to 15 now.
– Where will you be in five years?
– Then we will be present in several countries in Western Europe. We can enter new countries and find similar or other information as in Norway. The platform is in place, and that gives us great scalability. Denmark and the Netherlands are the most concrete countries we are looking at, he says.
