Flatfox is a leading property platform in Switzerland, operating out of Zurich, and currently has 15 employees. It offers a property marketplace for landlords and business customers to list properties free of charge. It also offers software solutions to business customers (such as property managers) for managing the digital rental process. One advantage is that companies can connect their management applications with the most-used online property listings in Switzerland. Another is that Flatfox can handle all types of interaction with tenants, over a single platform, leading to increased efficiency and better agility in the rental process and, as a consequence, shorter vacancy periods.

Founders to stay on

The four founders – Bernhard Mäder, Mattia Regi, Silvan Spross and Fabian Stutz – and their entire team will continue working for Flatfox once the acquisition is finalised. Both parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

The acquisition of Flatfox marks an important step forward for the development of la Mobilière’s ‘living and the home’ ecosystem. The other pillars in this ecosystem include the marketplaces operated by Scout24 Schweiz AG (the joint venture between Ringier and la Mobilière), buildigo (a B2C home-improvement platform) and aroov (a rental management platform).

Flatfox to work with aroov on comprehensive solution

La Mobilière is already the majority owner of aroov, alongside Garaio REM. Both Flatfox and aroov will continue to operate under their respective brands. Existing partnerships with third parties will be kept unchanged, or in some cases expanded, all within an open ecosystem.

“With la Mobilière as our core partner and working together with aroov, we can combine our talents to expand our market and develop new products as we seek to exploit the full potential of the digital tenancy market,” said Bernhard Mäder, CEO of Flatfox.

“We’re delighted to be teaming up with Flatfox,” said Matthias Frieden, Managing Director of aroov. “Each one of us can capitalise on our strengths, to the mutual benefit of the others. That’s great news for our customers, who will benefit from a broader range of services.”

“Flatfox offers an attractive range of features, a solid customer base and a highly motivated founding team, which will be staying with us,” said Andrea Kleiner, COO of la Mobilière. “Cooperation between aroov and Flatfox will yield attractive services for personal customers plus a full range of solutions for property professionals, enabling them to pitch the right offer to prospective tenants at the right time.”

While Flatfox and aroov are focused on the rental market, Liiva – a joint platform of la Mobilière and Raiffeisen – will service homeowners. Under current plans it is due to launch in summer 2021.