Member Article

Newcastle property software firm completes successful investment round

Newcastle upon Tyne based OnBoard Pro, a provider of secure cloud based residential tenancy software to letting agents and landlords, has today announced completion of a £2.5 million Series A investment round.

Valuing the company at over £5 million, this privately sourced investment round follows only six months after a seed round of £500,000 was completed by the founding directors. An immediate injection of £1m has been completed, with a further £1.5m in unsecured loan notes available over the next 12 months.

OnBoard Pro is innovative pre-tenancy software which combines the full lettings process into one efficient system. It provides letting agents and landlords with the tools to comprehensively check the suitability of tenants, issue contracts digitally, submit utility readings automatically, handle guarantors and inventories. A full tenancy application can be completed on the same day as a tenant viewing a property, in some cases in under an hour. It is estimated up to 18 hours of administritive time can be saved by using the software.

Stephen Purvis, CEO, explains what this investment means for the company. He said: “The completion of this successful funding round allows OnBoard Pro to continue our aggressive and sustained revenue and profitability growth path throughout 2015 and beyond. We will be investing significantly into recruiting more highly skilled employees including a dedicated London presence, strengthening our existing software patents through R&D and creating highly targeted marketing campaigns.

“It was particularly pleasing that a funding round of this size took place only 6 months after seed funding, without the involvement of a Venture Capital fund, and was completed from gun to tape in under 5 weeks. These factors serve to illustrate the significant investor interest and confidence, resulting in a heavily oversubscribed funding round.”

OnBoard Pro is incredibly proud to be part of the North East technology business landscape. Their Newburn Riverside head office, currently employs 24 full time staff; a number that will increase to 36 in the next 6 months. OnBoard Pro is majority owned by CEO Stephen Purvis, who also owns and operates several other North East technology businesses including SGP Consulting, Luna4 Enterprises and SGP Technology Incubation. The collective group of technology companies have a 2015 turnover projection of £7.4m and employ 75 highly skilled technologists.

Executive Chairman of OnBoard Pro, Alan Russell, comments on the completion: “This investment gives us an incredibly strong cash position to deliver an exciting, bullish but achievable business plan. In addition, the several offers for sale of OnBoard Pro outside of this funding round and at such an early stage in its business lifecycle act to support the Board’s confidence in our ambitious plans.”

As part of a broader strategy to prepare the business for a high growth trajectory to exit, OnBoard Pro are pleased to announce the appointment of two well-known local professional firms. National chartered accountants and business advisors Baker Tilly have been appointed as auditors, and Quayside based UK Top 100 law firm Ward Hadaway are instructed as the company’s lawyers.

Steve Railton, Managing Partner at Baker Tilly North East, said “We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with the team at Onboard Pro. At Baker Tilly North East, we believe in building a long-term relationship with our clients and look forward to working with Onboard Pro to help the company achieve its long term strategic plans.”

OnBoard Pro was founded by its CEO, Stephen Purvis who is a North East local who owns and runs a series of high technology businesses in the region. The group includes software and consultancy business SGP Consulting, gaming firm Luna4 enterprises, research by SGP Technology Incubation and a soon to launch coding academy for computer science graduates. Collectively the companies have a forecast turnover in 2015 of £7.15million with 60 full time employees.

Letting agents continue to see the efficiency and service quality benefits provided by OnBoard Pro, and are being increasingly joined by private landlords who wish to operate their property portfolios efficiently, profitably and within legislation. To find out more about OnBoard Pro and how it is changing the lettings industry landscape, please email info@onboardpro.co.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Leanne English .