A Tyneside property technology company which appeared on a popular Channel 4 show has secured a £370,000 investment to help it grow.
Peek Home began as a hobby for Roland and Jaemi Glancy, who enjoyed helping their friends to visualise the potential for their homes with sketch designs and 3D models. Word spread through their children’s school WhatsApp group and what started as an evening and weekend pasttime quickly became a successful venture, to the point where the Cullercoats couple were able to officially launch Peek Home as a business in August 2021.
Peek Home allows homeowners to get the best out of their homes at the click of a butto, with professionally designed sketch plans, delivered in days, for a fraction of the cost of an architect. The firm now offers add-on products including 3D walkthroughs, VR home tours and exterior visualisations. Word of mouth and an appearance on Channel 4’s Love It or List It with Kirstie and Phil has led to the company designing thousands of home renovations across the UK, with a total project value approaching £100m.
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Mr and Mrs Glancy have big ambitions to grow this number on the back of a total investment of £370,000, led by renowned Angel investor Simon Murdoch, who has also backed Zoopla, Shazam and Carwow, with £200,000 secured from the North East Innovation Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund, and managed by Northstar Ventures.
Mrs Glancy said: “When we started offering to create layouts to help friends imagine how their homes could be, we were blown away by their positive reactions. We’re thrilled to offer a more affordable and accessible way for homeowners to visualise the potential for their home. With this investment, we look forward to helping many more people across the UK and ultimately internationally too.”
Mr Murdoch added: “When I first met the Peek Home team I was impressed with the progress they had made by bootstrapping the business for the first year, I have invested with a view to helping Peek Home aim higher with many more services to people extending their homes or even building from scratch.”
Northstar Ventures investment manager Hekla Goodman said: “We were impressed with the team’s experience and the viral growth effect Peek Home has had through word of mouth and social media. People take real pride in their homes and Peek Home has harnessed that sentiment by providing a Proptech solution that the market is clearly in need of. We look forward to supporting Peek Home as it scales and continues to develop more trailblazing tech.”
Investor Andrew Miles added: “When I first started talking to Roland and Jaemi about what Peek Home were doing I could immediately sympathise with the pain points that they were solving as I had recently completed a kitchen extension. Peek Home have an impressive focus on making the process of getting a home extension easier and more accessible. The opportunities to provide value in this space are enormous and the plans that the company has are really exciting.”
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