Written by Christina Levada
Data-driven startup on track to help people in shared ownership achieve dream of owning a home following pre-Seed funding led by Fuel Ventures.
Stairpay, a platform that simplifies the customer journey of shared ownership to help more people achieve their dream of owning a home, has raised £750k in Pre-Seed funding.
The round was led by Fuel Ventures, with participation from Heartfelt Ventures. Prominent angel investors such as Rob Hamilton, who built and sold Instant Offices to private equity house MML Capital, prolific proptech specialist Luke Appleby, and Paul Kempe of City and Provincial Properties also joined the round. The funding will be used to further develop the platform and onboard more housing associations.
The startup, which currently focuses on automating staircasing - the process of gradually building towards 100% home ownership - has partnered with leading housing association, Clarion and social enterprise, Places for People. The company has also partnered with Share to Buy, the largest property portal for shared ownership, to facilitate automatic listing of shared ownership properties for sale. These partnerships will leverage Stairpay’s data-driven insights to enhance and simplify the shared ownership experience for residents using the part-buy, part-rent scheme designed to make housing more affordable.
The UK faces a significant gap between renters and affordable properties. While 8.5 million people currently rent, only 20,000 shared ownership properties became available in 2021-22. The end of the Help to Buy scheme in 2022, which enabled the purchase of almost 390,000 new build homes, has also created a supply void. Consequently, the number of first-time buyers dropped to a 10-year low of 293,000 last year, highlighting the need for innovative solutions.
Stairpay’s platform addresses these challenges by automating the entire shared ownership journey for both residents and housing associations — from initial purchase to staircasing and resales. Residents can manage their entire shared ownership experience through the app, eliminating the need for dealing with multiple advisers and complex paperwork. Stairpay also captures crucial data points to help housing associations better understand their residents and optimise their shared ownership offerings. A successful two-month pilot with Clarion saw an additional £1.58m worth of staircasing instructions generated and strong resident engagement with the app.
Floris ten Nijenhuis, Founder of Stairpay said: “Stairpay was born out of the desire to solve the challenges faced by first-time buyers looking to get onto the property ladder. The UK has the largest shared ownership market globally, but has challenges to address. Our partnerships with Places for People, Clarion and Share to Buy signify the collective intent to apply a data-driven approach to significantly improve the shared ownership experience for both residents, housing associations and other stakeholders which will see more people realise their dream of full home ownership. Shared Ownership has also become an increasingly popular asset class, attracting significant investment from the likes of Blackstone, Legal & General and M&G. Our technology provides data and insights to make Shared Ownership an even more attractive asset class by determining who it works for.”
Mike Stevenson, Principal at Fuel Ventures said: “The shared ownership market in the UK is currently facing significant challenges and the results of Stairpay’s pilot with Clarion Housing has demonstrated the potential of innovative solutions to address them. By leveraging data, the platform simplifies and enhances the shared ownership experience for both housing associations and residents. We are excited to support Floris and the team in their mission to help more people achieve their dream of owning a home.”
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