To entice people to view a property, most estate agents rely on flattering photos and a flair for copywriting – which usually amounts to peppering descriptions with words like ‘charming’ or ‘well-appointed’. Too often, finding suitable properties and booking a viewing is laborious and misleading. But London-based startup Keypla is hoping to change all that using immersive 360° video that takes people on a virtual tour inside any for-sale property, right from the comfort of their sofa.
It says this will make things more efficient for estate agents, minimising viewings that turn out to be fruitless because the offline reality didn’t match its online profile. Some property companies have been offering immersive tours already but the startup claims that the cost of the hardware has come down to a point that it’s now much more affordable.
What’s more, its algorithm claims to be able to understand people’s viewing preferences in a sophisticated way and make data-backed recommendations based on their viewing history. Altogether, this could be a much-needed step forward for an industry that has tended to lag behind when it comes to adopting new technology.
Founded in April 2016 by Kingsley Advani and Rafael Nunes, the startup says it will power 12,000 listings this year and its end goal is to build a 360° profile of every single house or flat on sale in the UK. But property is just the start: its founders see other applications for Keypla’s data analytics and virtual reality technology and the fact that they’re looking for a head of machine learning is a further sign of the startup’s grand ambitions.
Having been chosen to be one of the 21 early-stage companies to present at tech accelerator Entrepreneur First’s Demo Day at Facebook’s London HQ earlier this month, it seems doors are opening fast for this startup. 
