Problem

Yannick, working as a property developer upon graduation, noticed how many aspects of the real estate industry were outdated and not comparable with technological developments in other industries. Not only his work as a property developer was inefficient due to the lack of digital tools to manage the workload more efficiently, but also the growing distrust in the industry made customer service difficult. 

Working with Vincent, Pieter and David, Yannick started digging deeply into the core of the rather negative reputation the real estate industry was faced with by interviewing hundreds of homebuyers. They went door-to-door interviewing 400 homebuyers in Belgium. They discovered there is a high level of distrust towards the real estate industry, mainly due to the shortage of information in the process. In fact, in 2016, 42% of the Belgians expressed little or no confidence in the sector, ^[1] which was in line with Ziggu’s findings. Ziggu’s team presented these results to property developers who were eager to find out what  homebuyers think about their business and how they can better serve their customers by using Ziggu’s insight into the customer market and the right tools needed for the job. 

Solution

With Ziggu and their products Ziggu Engage and Ziggu Construction View, real estate professionals can easily communicate with homebuyers making sure to meet their needs in building their dream home.

Homebuyers can voice their questions and preferences while getting promptly informed about their home’s construction and all the legal and administrative issues required. At the same time, Ziggu helps real estate professionals manage their work and varied customers ‘expectations more efficiently by providing advanced project management tools.

“In a way we are Uber Eats/Deliveroo for the real estate industry. Before, when ordering your food, you were just waiting, not knowing when it would arrive, and the process was not digitised at all. The same was, and still is, with homes –  “ordering your home” you often have a feeling of being left in the dark, not knowing what’s happening during construction and no way to track all information on an online environment.”, said Yannick Bontinckx.

  Ziggu Construction View is a  camera platform that facilitates remote management of all construction projects, and it has been successfully commercially released in April 2018, while  Ziggu Engage, 

a customer management and engagement platform, will be commercially released this summer with users, mainly property developers, already beta-testing the platform and waiting on its release.

Ziggu’s challenging beginning

The four-member team has been working on Ziggu for a year now, solely depending on their savings and grants received via Lux Innovation’s programme Fit 4 Start, which supports innovative startups by offering 16-week startup programme of coaching and weekly follow-up by lean startup experts including business grants. 

 

“Our skin is in the game, we spent a lot of sleepless nights to work on Ziggu as we invested even our own money to make it work”, Yannick said. 

 

 

 

                                         

                                              Ziggu's team

First traction with Lux Innovation and Technoport SA

Fortunately, after being accepted to Lux Innovation’s programme Fit 4 Start in Summer 2016 hosted at EBN Member Technoport SA’s premises, Ziggu attracted significant attention, with a lot of potential customers beta-testing their platform, and waiting on its release. Shortly after, the team got accepted in a similar  programme in Australia, which was the key step into exploring international markets leading to opening a sales office in Australia.

Thanks to the positive experience with Technoport SA, Ziggu decided to base their business there. Since March 2017, the startup has been hosted by the EU|BIC, which has provided them excellent conditions to finalise Ziggu’s products as well as the opportunity to attend workshops on pitching and financing options for free.

“We felt welcome in Technoport, they opened its international network to us and the great innovation ecosystem in Luxembourg.”

The “Growth” startup winner – EBN Congress 2018

Hard work pays off – Ziggu has only been officially established for a bit over than a year and it is already on the right path. In front of EBN Congress audience, Ziggu pitched their innovative solutions, winning the award for the best pitch in “Growth category”. This was one of the three (space, growth, industry) tracks of this year’s EBN Congress hosted and co-organised by EBN and Technoport SA in Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg (06-08 June).

Yannick Bontinckx, Ziggu’s CEO and co-founder, receiving the award at EBN Congress with Diego Debiasio, EBN Member Technoport SA's CEO, Vincent Van Impe, Ziggu’s CPO and co-founder, and Javier Echarri, EBN’s CEO

Ziggu about EBN Congress

“EBN Congress was a great experience, I think our rapid growth and development of 2 products in parallel in such a short time is the reason for winning in Growth category among many other great startups”.

Congratulations to Ziggu - we wish them rapid growth in line with the EBN Congress award!

^[1] http://www.wes.be/nl/nieuws/november-2016/helft-belgen-heeft-weinig-vertrouwen-in-vastgoedmarkt-ondanks-golf-van-professionaliserin