Hammock, the landlord-focused technology platform, has raised £1m in seed investment from Fuel Ventures and Ascension Ventures.
Hammock currently plugs into landlord’s bank accounts via open banking and automatically monitors rent collection, tracks payments and expenses and delivers live analytical reporting on the wellbeing of each rental house or flat.
By providing tracking of balance sheets for each property Hammock is able to save landlords time, while the real-time insights reduce uncertainty and inefficiencies for landlords.
Manoj Varsani, founder and chief executive of Hammock, said: “The UK is a country of renters with more than £85bn collected each year. For landlords the time spent trying to manage the monies for more than one property – from rent collection to bookkeeping – can cause headaches.
“I know this first hand being a landlord myself. We wanted to alleviate this by developing new tech that automates the mundane duties of managing property portfolios and provides instant insight into how well each house or flat is performing.
“Having this new investment allows us to pursue our vision of reducing uncertainty and providing efficiency to landlords, ultimately helping them maximise profits. These savings in both time and money can then be passed onto the tenants: a win-win for the industry.”
In the coming weeks Hammock will release an FCA-regulated current account, an online financial account designed for landlords and property managers.
As the business grows and brings more properties online, Hammock will further expand the range of money and lending services.
Mark Pearson, managing partner at Fuel Ventures, said: “We’re very bullish about the impact of open banking on bringing value to consumers through their account data.
“Hammock is a great example of this happening for landlords, who, now more than ever, need to be able to track the performance of their property portfolios.
“In our initial discussions, we were incredibly impressed by Hammocks’ early product and the progress they had made with the funding they had.
“We’re incredibly excited to be part of this latest round of investment, giving Hammock the fuel to bring real value to the UK’s 2.5m landlords.”
