Bluffite’s app fired up by Dragons’ Den funding
A Bluff man has had his smartphone app idea funded by one of the dreaded dragons.
BLUFFITE Jaco de Langa braved the Dragons’ Den TV show and came away with the treasure, as his smartphone application was given the necessary funding to take it nationwide.
PropCare, De Lange’s property management application, allows property owners to find dependable, local service providers, who are rated by previous customers. They can then get quotations and make bookings through the app.
When he presented his idea to the Dragons’ Den South Africa team on Tuesday, 7 October, venture capitalist Vinny Lingham was excited about the prospect of the app, which fits a gap in the market and agreed to invest R300,000.
“I’ve been a real estate agent for over 10 years and started PropCare because I saw my customers struggled to find reliable service providers in their areas. They called me for referrals and I built up a database of trusted providers, which became the foundation of PropCare. Additionally, PropCare actively promotes local small business providers based on positive feedback. We’ve found it is extremely difficult for new businesses providing these services to get traction when entering the market. PropCare gives home owners access to precisely the services they seek, and ranks reliable providers based on users’ service ratings – a win for everyone,” said De Lange.
Lingham’s investment will fund the countrywide expansion of PropCare. “I’m so excited that a Durban start-up is represented among the investments I’ve recently made, and I couldn’t have wished for a more passionate and hardworking partner than Jaco,” said Lingham.
PropCare is currently available in Durban and should be available throughout KZN by the end of 2014, with expansion into the rest of the country expected to be complete by March 2016.
