Lazudi raises US$2 million investment to drive digital transformation in Thai real estate sector
Thailand’s property market is poised for a tech transformation after Lazudi became the Kingdom’s first cloud-based property agency with a US$2 million investment from Swedish venture capital company, PropTech Farm.
The deal with Stockholm-based PropTech Farm comes at an opportune time as Thailand’s property market gears up for an industry-anticipated upturn next year following the easing of mortgages and travel restrictions by the Government to help stimulate the economy, which is expected to grow by 4% in 2022. The cash injection puts Lazudi at the forefront of digital innovation in the Thai property market by moving property transaction processes online, making it simple and convenient for home buyers to select their perfect home at their fingertips, whilst home sellers, in turn, are exposed to a wider audience of potential buyers.
“The past few years have helped accelerate consumers acceptance of digital resources to make better, more informed decisions for purchasing property. Virtual tours, 360 immersive walkthroughs and digital agreements are all now playing a regular part of the buying process,” said Costa Savva, Co-Founder & Managing Director of Lazudi. “In much more developed markets, consumers are already completing the full process online and we plan to implement similar technologies here in Thailand in phases throughout 2022. We envision that the platform will be fully completed by 2023 as we include related-industry business partners to make it a truly one-stop convenient tool for home buyers and sellers”, he added.
Following the principles of e-commerce, the Lazudi cloud-based platform works for buyers, tenants and agents, smoothing out the posting, marketing of inventory, providing increased transparency for buyers and sellers during the transaction process, while slashing the onerous back office paperwork and admin work. Since its inception in 2020, Lazudi’s partner agents have transacted over THB 1 billion worth of property. In fact, with its enhanced platform, they are now averaging six times their level of completed transactions as a result of the reduction of admin, marketing and back office processes, which has enabled them to spend more quality, personalized time in taking care of their clients.
“PropTech Farm brings an amalgamation of property and digital expertise, investing in entrepreneurs ready to disrupt the real estate sector and is specifically seeking out partners in Southeast Asia. Historically, this sector has been an industry slow to go digital. Although more and more online solutions are now available, little has reached the Thai market which remains very fragmented and primarily offline, heavy on admin with little transparency for consumers. Our investment into Lazudi aims to change this for both agents and the end consumer,” remarked Fredrik Bergman, CEO & Co-Founder of PropTech Farm.
Hundreds of millions of dollars of venture capital has poured into global PropTech in recent years, seeing the vast potential to transform the way the world’s biggest asset class is managed and this new investment round shows that there is significant interest in the industry in Thailand.
