South African Proptech venture builder Castle One Secures Funding

South African Proptech group Castle One has announced it received an undisclosed amount of funding from HL Hall and Sons Holdings. The startup speaking said the deal will unlock new, synergistic value for the benefit of the real estate industry, both locally and abroad.

Castle One was launched by Jonothan Rawson and Mark Forrester in 2018, the startup provides prospective tenants with a single profile to help landlords and property professionals.

Castle One’s venture-building model, which involves investing in and building new products and ventures, while creating synergies and network effects, looks to address this challenge.

Castle One has also invested in three local prop-tech ventures, namely digital marketing and business platform for real estate Prop Data, rental payments and portfolio automation platform reOS, and Ekaya.

Halls is a 130-year-old family-owned business, with local and international holdings across several sectors – from data and analytics to property investment and pharmaceuticals.

Rawson speaking said the industry’s unique dynamics present a number of barriers although the prop-tech space in South Africa has attracted substantial attention in recent years.

“This is largely due to the size of the formal South African property market, when compared to markets like the US, but also the multi-faceted nuances of the real estate business itself, which newcomers to the industry tend to underestimate.

Halls chief executive officer (CEO) Pete Backwell also said: “Our investment into Castle One is tremendously exciting as our companies have strong shared values and a common vision for how technology can benefit the real estate sector,”.

According to Rawson, the investment by Halls into Castle One will be used to accelerate its innovation journey, while extending its presence in foreign markets.