Leading European Crowdfunding Firm FundedByMe Kicks-Off Property Portal MIPARO’s Campaign

MIPARO, a residential real estate home listing portal for emerging markets announced today that there crowdfunding campaign with FundedByMe, a leading European based firm, started last week. It will run for five more weeks. MIPARO hopes to raise between $300,000 and $500,000. Small investors can invest in MIPARO for as little as $145*.

This will be MIPARO’s third funding round. Initially in 2016, the company received seed-round funding of $400,000 from West Island Invest AB. This was followed by an investment in January, 2018 by the Swedish-based early-stage VC Company Milky Way Cap, which bought a 2% equity stake. Concurrent with the crowdfunding effort, MIPARO remains in talks with a number of private placement investors.

PropTech – Today’s “Hottest” VC Startup Category

Real estate – a.k.a. PropTech – is one of the “hottest” early stage investment categories, according to Forbes Magazine, a leading U.S. business publication. In 2016, over $2.6 billion was invested into real estate tech startups through 235 deals worldwide. Investments in the category were even higher in 2017. One of the main reasons investor interest is so high is that PropTech is one of the last major categories not dramatically impacted by the technology revolution. This, and the chance of seeing robust returns, is driving investor interest.

Until now, only large VC funds, wealthy individual investors or private equity firms had the means to invest in this category.  FundedByMe crowdfunding campaign allows small, individual investors the opportunity to reap the benefits in PropTech. Mikael Westoo, founder and CEO of MIPARO noted, “Finally, anyone can invest in real estate tech. It’s no longer the sole domain people with deep pockets. And our emerging market strategy appears to be working.”

Emerging Markets Offer Promising ROI

The online property listing portal category is undeveloped in emerging markets. Today, most of these countries have dozens of listing portals and broker platforms, making home search difficult. Few platforms showcase an area’s entire inventory as is the case in the U.S. and Europe.

When online listing platforms first appeared in the U.S. and Europe, they too had a cluttered listing portal environment.  Now, however, one or two portals dominate the market. Most analysts believe this will occur in emerging markets as their markets mature.

According to Westoo, “Our objective is to be the dominate player in the markets where we operate. We plan on being one of survivors when the market eventually shakes out as it did in the U.S. and Europe. This fund raising campaign will help us achieve that.”

About MIPARO

Founded in 2016 in Sweden, MIPARO provides real estate agents and brokers in developing markets with a global platform to showcase their client’s homes, providing unparalleled international exposure. Home buyers can easily find properties in their respective markets because MIPARO consolidates many of them on a single platform.

Real estate agents and brokers pay a modest fee to have their inventory listed on MIPARO. Their listings are then easily uploaded to MIPARO’s website for millions of local and international home buyers to see. Listings are translated into the audience’s own language.

MIPARO will also mediate conversations between buyers and sellers if they don’t speak the same language. Importantly, MIPARO requires a rigorous verification process to make sure listings aren’t fake or posted by scam artists, a problem found in emerging markets.

*Open to investors outside the U.S. only

About Miparo

Founded in 2016 in Sweden, MIPARO provides real estate agents and brokers in developing markets with a global platform to showcase their client’s homes, providing unparalleled international exposure. Home buyers can easily find properties in the respective markets because MIPARO consolidates many of them on a single platform.

As done in Europe, MIPARO charges agents a small fee to post their properties on their platform. North American listing portals don’t charge agents to post their listings; instead they charge individual agents to advertise their services.

Listings are then easily uploaded to MIPARO’s website for millions of international and local home buyers to see. All listings are translated into the target audience’s own language for no extra charge.

MIPARO will mediate conversations between buyers and sellers if they don’t speak the same language. Importantly, MIPARO requires a rigorous two-step verification process to make sure listings are real so buyers don’t fall victim to thieves and scam artists who populate many home search platforms abroad.