Virtual View App Raises $500K To Bring Augmented Reality Campaigns To The Property Sector

Virtual View App, a London startup that offers an augmented reality publishing platform and app designed specifically for the property sector, has raised $500k in funding. The investment comes from unnamed private investors from a finance and professional services background. It’s the 2013-founded company’s only external funding to date.

Co-founded by London-based estate agent Domenic Versace, the Virtual View App offers estate agents and house sellers a Augmented Reality platform for marketing purposes. The Android and iOS app follows the usual AR affair. Users point their phone or tablet’s camera at a static image that is Virtual View App-enabled to access additional digital content such as 3D property models, 3D floor-plans, photo galleries and videos. Virtual View App campaigns can also provide links to an agency’s social media channels, website, or any other relevant content.

Another way to think of the startup is a vertical or niche version of an uber-AR platform like Layer, targeting a specific sector — in this instance, property marketing. It’s also similar to something like VirtualMob, but, again, tailored to the property sector.

You get the idea.

To that end, Virtual View App says it will use the new capital to grow the team, develop the platform and further expand in the UK and select property markets. As part of that expansion it’s currently developing a new product offering which it likens to Google’s ‘Street View’ but for inside a property.

Virtual View AppThe pull for estate agents is that by using AR — and Virtual View App, specifically — they’ll be able to secure a greater number of new properties, and provide a more engaging way for prospective buyers and tenants to check out a property, leading to increased sales and rentals.

The startup is also talking up the analytics side of the platform in that each campaign is fully trackable, enabling ROI to be measured and campaigns accountable.

Virtual View App says it is already working with a number of UK estate agency groups, including Fine & Country, Campsie, Orchard & Shipman, Newman, Jackson Stops and Harrods, as well as trialling the platform with a number of overseas estate agents.

Other competitors in the Augmented Reality platform space include Aurasma, Blippar and Metaio.