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Purplebricks and Boomin co-founder Kenny Bruce and the former chairman and CEO of Countrywide and co-founder of Rightmove, Harry Hill, have been appointed to the Board at The Agency UK (TAUK).
Bruce has joined as a senior non-executive director at TAUK, while Hill, who was lobbying to become chairman of Purplebrickes before the online estate agency was sold earlier this year, has been appointed chairman of the TAUK board.
Bruce, who left Purplebricks in 2019, was most recently involved with Boomin, which he launched with his brother, Michael, in an attempt to challenge established property portals, including Rightmove, Zoopla, and OnTheMarket.
The Bruce brothers lost a significant amount of money as a result of the firm’s collapse, after injecting their own cash into the platform to keep it operating.
Boomin attracted investment from a number of high-profile backers, including Foxtons and DN Capital, but was unable to raise about £6m of additional equity needed last year to keep the business going.
Bruce has now returned to the estate agency sector with TAUK, which has close to 100 partner agents, reuniting with former Purplebricks head of customer support and head of operations in the US, Stephanie Walker, who is co-founder and head of sales at TAUK.
She said: “After the incredible work of the founding team and especially, our founding agents, we have built incredibly robust foundations which have attracted this investment.
“This influx of capital empowers us to further support and nurture our partner agents, enabling them to achieve unparalleled success and productivity. It will bolster our digital marketing efforts to complement agents’ activities in the field, attract top talent across the UK, and most excitingly, launch our highly anticipated estate agency director team model in key metropolitan markets.”
TAUK has revealed that it is also planning a new downstream capital offering, designed to empower new and existing agents within the TAUK network to cultivate substantial long-term value within their own businesses.
Andrew Vass, chief executive of TAUK, commented: “We are thrilled to close this initial funding round with such overwhelming interest in our vision for the UK real estate market.
“As a UK-based business, we have the advantage of steering our direction with agility, adapting to market conditions while maintaining control over our operations.
“We are deeply honoured and grateful to have Harry Hill and Kenny Bruce join our board and be part of TAUK’s journey.”
TAUK founder Mark Bruce added: “Our intention was always to offer a premium suite of services to ensure the success of each estate agent joining us to build their businesses.
“This significant investment of capital, with the endorsement of Harry and Kenny, shows we have one of the best solutions for estate agents considering the self-employed route.
“We are now poised to increase our Partner Agent headcount across the UK and look forward to talking with agents about how our support, lead generation and tools will give them a unique edge in the marketplace.”