“I lost count of how many ‘no’s’ I got”: How Melbourne real estate startup REALas overcame rejection and got acquired by ANZ

For Melbourne real estate startup REALas, what started as a search for funding has led to an all-out acquisition by big four bank ANZ and an overhaul of its user offerings, platform and price-prediction algorithm.

Founded in 2011, REALas is a real estate platform that claims to give future home buyers accurate predictions of housing prices, and it is this niche offering that differentiates it from other formidable competitors like REA Group, according to its chief Josh Rowe.

While Rowe says it was the startup’s “unique” algorithm that made it “quite attractive” to the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group , REALas hadn’t originally set out with a goal of being acquired by the bank.

REALas was initially seeking investment to expand its user offerings and marketing efforts, but Rowe says while talking to ANZ during the fundraising process, a conversation about a partnership progressed into a full acquisition 12 months later.

“This conversation came about because we realised that our customers wanted more from our platform and product … we needed to be more responsive in terms of their needs, our market penetration was fairly low, and only 1 in 20 home buyers were aware of our service,” Rowe tells StartupSmart. 

Rowe and the REALas founders had approached other high net worth investors, venture capitalists and other companies for investment, but ultimately found it was ANZ’s acquisition proposition that would take the company in the right direction. Read more

Angela Castles - Smart Company - 4 Oct 2017