Real Messenger, a Costa Mesa-based mobile app creator linking real estate agents, buyers and sellers with AI-driven data around the world, plans to go for a public listing on the Nasdaq.
The app, backed by star real estate broker Fredrik Eklund of the Bravo series “Million Dollar Listings,” went live less than a year ago.
“Agents who aren’t moving fast with the times will miss out,” Eklund, the company’s chief visionary officer, told the Business Journal on March 30.
Real Messenger plans a combination with a special purpose acquisition company, commonly known as a SPAC, called Nova Vision Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: NOVV), and based in Singapore.
The deal that will take Real Messenger public was announced last month and is expected to be completed between July 1 and Sept. 30.
Eklund described the digital platform as “Instagram meets WhatsApp meets Zillow” when it first launched last summer.
Real says it intends to connect the global real estate community and scale its reach and business across the globe.
“Users will pay for the premium features, but currently, the app is free to use,” according to Eklund, who hails from Sweden.
Co-founder and CEO Thomas Ma says Real Messenger now has about 25 employees split between offices in Hong Kong and Costa Mesa.
“We are looking to raise $20 million,” via a concurrent private investment at the time of the SPAC merger, he told the Business Journal on March. 29. He said the company is looking at an enterprise value of $150 million.
Nova Vision also has some $19 million of cash on its books that will be transferred to Real at the time of the reverse merger, according to regulatory filings.
AI-Assisted
The company uses AI to match up sellers and buyers and predict what might suit their needs and tastes.
“We can predict their preferences probably even more than they know themselves,” Ma said. “Through their preferences we can predict and suggest different areas. It streamlines their search practice.”
The company’s revenue will come from “all stakeholders,” homebuyers, sellers, agents, investors and homeowners, according to Ma.
“The highest demand will be from professionals—the agents, also the investors,” according to Ma.
It has garnered more than 350,000 downloads in 35 countries since an initial $12 million investment by co-founders Ma and Eklund.
One goal: to make the real estate process more “fun and joyful” and there is a heavy dose of artificial intelligence and data to make it all work.
“We don’t do transactions,” Ma noted.
Real says it is “the first and only social app combined with messaging for real estate that puts agents back in control of their business.”
Global Market
“The reason people spend more time on Real than Zillow, is because we are very streamlined and editorial. The information highway is too busy, and we put everything in one place for agents. Off-market listings, buying, selling,” according to Eklund.
Users can look up what offerings are big in other markets, an important feature as real estate continues to become more global.
“Real was built to be the social app for real estate.”
Real Messenger predicts it will pull in $300,000 in revenue this year, and ambitious projections call for almost $450 million in revenue by 2026.
The combined company will be listed on the Nasdaq under the symbol “RMSG.”
