Vizzihome

Business Loans Case Study

Left to right: Finance Yorkshire Investment Manager Jonathan Craig with Jeremy Ward and Kevin Hollinrake from Vizzihome

The Company

Kevin Hollinrake and Jeremy Ward, both 49, established property intelligence company, Vizzihome, in 2009 when the pair identified a gap in the property sector for strong market intelligence.

The company is based in York and it enables estate agents to analyse their market share or identify home mover marketing opportunities

Kevin said: “We recognised estate agents needed information about their local market share of house sales and lettings and it wasn’t easily available or up-to-date.

“The traditional way to gather this information was for people to walk down a street and manually count the for sale and to let boards, but we developed a way to collect this information in an efficient way on a national scale and our information is gathered in real-time.”

We can also provide direct mail opportunities for estate agents and other companies, such as utilities, broadband providers and retailers, who are keen to sell services relevant to homemovers.

The Challenge

The business doubled in size year on year and now 200,000,000 lines of data make up its vast online database and the team collate this into market research. Vizzihome then sell this information onto its customers.

Kevin said: “It is non-personal data, we don’t have information on who lives there but simply that a home is changing hands, or, for example, if a home has double glazing. It’s not about individuals it’s about the property.

The Solution

Vizzihome has received a £100,000 Business Loan from Finance Yorkshire to help assist with its growth, develop its software and employ more staff.

Jeremy said: “The business has been very successful because there is nobody else doing this. We invented our own systems and processes which are totally unique. It’s not just about getting the data it’s about how to make sense of it.”

The Investment Rationale

Finance Yorkshire Investment Manager, Jonathan Craig, said: “Vizzihome is a unique business that is growing very quickly - around 50 per cent per annum.

“We were happy to help a business that is reaching a national customer market and the money will help towards developing software that helps processes their data at the touch of a button.”

Future Expectations

Kevin added: “Finance Yorkshire was very helpful in a time when funding for businesses is hard, even if like us you are a profitable business. The funding has enabled us to recruit two extra people which will give us broader access to sales.

“The money will also help to develop our software so it’s even easier to target the right opportunities.

“We now supply data to over 200 companies nationwide and we have expanded our data sales to companies in other sectors like furniture and insurance.”

Note: this case study is from Finance Yorkshire’s previous fund. Read more about Finance Yorkshire

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