Real estate startup ToLet.com receives US$1.2-million in funding

The Lagos-based real estate business, ToLet has managed to raise US$1.2-million from Frontier Digital Ventures through a Series A round of funding.

ToLet, originally Estanode, was founded in 2012 by Ogundipe Fikayo, Balogun Sulaiman, Eludire Oladapo and Ayeni Oluwaseyi. A year after its inception, the company received US$230 000 in seed funding from Spark, which was then used in the ToLet.com.ng rebrand.

“The new funds raised will be used to improve the platform’s technology offering to both property seekers as well as that used by listing agents. The rest of the funds will be channelled into improved marketing efforts and aggressive expansion across Nigeria over the next 12-18 months,” said CEO of ToLet, Fikayo Ogundipe, in their blog post.

“Our Agents are much happier to stick with us because, unlike competitors who use subscription models, we collect commissions, which essentially makes our service a performance-based one and ensures ‘we don’t get paid unless our agents get paid,'” said co-founder, Balogun Sulaiman.

ToLet aims to connect property searchers with property sellers through their service

“The commission fee is the model locally operated among Nigerian real estate agents. Our research showed that Nigerian real estate agents prefer the model of sharing commissions on closed deals as against paying subscriptions that don’t have guaranteed returns,” concluded Sulaiman.

According to ToLet, they’ve already facilitated over US$8-million in transaction values, which boasted about 20 000 listings from more than 3500 real estate agents.

“We are super excited to be making this investment into ToLet.com.ng, and look forward to being part of helping fuel their next stage of accelerated growth,” said the CEO of Frontier Digital Ventures, Shaun Di Gregorio.

“We have full confidence in the ability of the founding team to continue with the awesome job they have already started and we look forward to the consolidation of their position as the Number One property classifieds portal in Nigeria,” concluded Gregorio.

Featured image: Satanoid via Flickr