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PropTech startup Hubble is building a smart digital advisor after raising £1.2m

London-based PropTech business Hubble has raised £1.2m as it looks to build what it describes as the world’s first digital commercial property advisor.

The startup, which helps small startups find available flexible office space, has raised the funding from Transferwise-backer Firestartr, along with 500 Startups, Maxfield Capital and Concrete, the PropTech-focused fund that is backed up by Seedcamp and Starwood Capital.

Since it was founded in 2014, Hubble has worked with the likes of Monzo, Ministry of Sound and Funding Circle to help them seal new office space through its platform which allows businesses to easily compare, view and secure flexible space.

In a sign of changes in the market, the business has also said it has begun working with bigger, blue-chip clients such as Jaguar Land ROver and Aldermore Bank, in a sign that even the bigger players are now snapping up flexible, bespoke offices for their operations.

According to Hubble’s Chief Executive Officer, Tushar Agarwal, the shift has been both cultural and political, with Brexit forcing more businesses to eye-up shorter leases to protect themselves against uncertainty.

He said: “Brexit has been a boon for us, as SMEs that would traditionally sign long-term office leases are now coming to Hubble to look for flexible terms as a hedge against the uncertain economic environment; office landlords are being forced to find innovative ways to generate income.

“Hubble is the driving force behind a trend that is seeing traditional commercial property agents quickly becoming obsolete. As technology has enabled the number of freelancers and SMEs in the world to grow at an unprecedented rate, they are rapidly displacing Fortune 500 companies from the physical real estate they traditionally occupy - the bread and butter of traditional agents.”

The funding, which follows on from a £500k seed round in 2014, will now be channelled into developing a smart digital advisor which Hubble claims will replace the traditional property advisor and provide ‘instant, intelligent solutions’ relating to SME office rentals.

In terms of their wider vision for the tech, Hubble’s Chief Technology Officer, Tom Watson, name dropped similar robo-advisors by digital mortgage broker Habito and investment management firm Nutmeg.

He said: “We’re moving towards a world where technology is either enhancing or replacing the experience a customer has with a broker. We’ve seen this with Habito in the mortgage market and the Nutmeg robo-advisor in the investment market.

“This new funding allows us to build a platform that will be able to deliver an unlimited number of rental transactions at zero marginal cost and reduce average transaction time from 3 months to 3 weeks.

“The Hubble platform will never compromise on the quality of the match and the service. In fact, it’s the opposite of human property agents - machine learning will mean that the platform gets better the more people use it.

“Our vision is for Hubble to be the world’s first artificially intelligent commercial property company by 2020.”

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