BidX1 secures Enterprise Ireland funding to expand into other markets

Irish online auction specialist BidX1 has secured almost €500,000 in investment from Enterprise Ireland as the company continues to trade well despite the Covid-19 crisis.

The move comes as real estate group REA announced a new dedicated online sales platform called BidNow.ie.

Enterprise Ireland is backing BidX1, which operates in Ireland, Britain, South Africa, Spain and Cyprus through its Agile Innovation Fund, as part of an overall investment of about €1 million.

BidX1 is to use the funding to grow headcount and expand into Greece and Portugal early next year.

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The company, which has spent €4 million on its platform since 2019, said it has seen a 50 per cent growth in revenues, despite a reduction in the second quarter due to the pandemic.

BidX1 currently employs 113 people but intends to increase headcount to 140. It has sold more than 9,000 properties to date, raising more than €1.6 billion.

Private equity house Pollen Street Capital acquired a significant stake in the company in 2018 and at that time also committed up to £15 million (€16.6 million) of additional financing to help the firm expand into Greek, Spanish and South African markets.

BidX1 began as Allsop Space in 2011, when it auctioned 81 properties in Dublin for €15 million through a joint venture with British player Allsop.

In 2015 it began running online auctions alongside traditional sales and, two years later, the company became a digital-only auctioneer.

Platform

BidX1 in April announced plans to make its platform available to traditional estate agents to help them through the Covid crisis. It announced a partnership with Foxtons in the UK earlier this year, and has been working with Pam Goldings Properties in South Africa.

“The pandemic has been a watershed moment for many traditional agencies and we’re seeing an exponential increase in demand on this front, across all markets,” said Stephen McCarthy, founder and chief executive at BidX1.

“The opportunity in the European and African property markets is immense, but so is the sophistication required to take advantage of it. We have built a multilingual, multi-currency platform, capable of handling the complexities of varying regulatory & legal environments, allowing a global investor base to transact property from wherever they are in the world,” he added.

Separately, REA said its new dedicated online sales platform will allow agents to offer properties for sale via individual or group online auctions, host live-streamed in-room auctions or online private treaty sales.

The group, which consists of 55 estate agencies nationwide, said bidders will sign in after applying for an auction passport, and will pay a returnable €5,100 deposit to bid. The successful bidder then pays the balance of the 10 per cent deposit, with sales contracts executed electronically.