The Kucing app provides Singaporeans the instruments to listing properties and full transactions independently
Let’s face it—Singapore has no scarcity of property apps. However most platforms solely permit licensed brokers to create listings, leaving on a regular basis customers depending on them and paying 1000’s of {dollars} in charges.
A brand new participant, Kucing, goals to alter that. Based in Aug 2023, the proptech app acts as a “property copilot,” offering customers with the instruments to listing, handle, and full transactions independently—fully slicing out the intermediary. In some ways, it may be likened to Carousell, however for purchasing and promoting property.
We spoke with the platform’s founders, Mathieu Goarant and Guillaume Garagnon, about how they purpose to remodel the proptech panorama in Singapore with Kucing.
Offering a “unified” property expertise
Mathieu and Guillaume, who’re each French nationals and Singapore Everlasting Residents, have lived in Asia for over 20 years. They first met 18 years in the past whereas working at plane manufacturing firm Airbus, forging a long-lasting friendship.
Over time, they labored in numerous corporations earlier than venturing into their very own companies. Nevertheless, they realised that their particular person ventures lacked scalability.
A dialog over espresso in 2022 sparked a shared curiosity in making a scalable startup, combining Guillaume’s experience in advertising and marketing with Mathieu’s data of the property sector and mission administration. Collectively, they envisioned a platform that would “unify the property expertise” for all customers.
Kucing is constructed on knowledge. It integrates with authorities APIs resembling URA (City Redevelopment Authority) and HDB (Housing Improvement Board) for correct pricing and real-time market insights.
“There are such a lot of authorities tech initiatives—cloud safety, knowledge analytics, visualisations—that make these potentialities possible now,” mentioned Guillaume.
By harnessing these APIs, Kucing transforms uncooked authorities knowledge into sensible, actionable instruments for owners and consumers, making actual property data extra clear and accessible.
The way it works
Customers can obtain Kucing on the Play Retailer or App Retailer to get began, although they might want to check in with Singpass for safe consumer verification.
Throughout the app, they will toggle between resale and rental knowledge, geolocate close by listings, or put up a list immediately from the map. It’s free for customers with a single itemizing, whereas these with two or extra listings can subscribe to a paid plan at S$115 monthly, with no annual dedication.
Kucing verifies listed properties in opposition to title deeds, awarding a belief badge to authenticated listings. In case you’re eager on viewing a property, the app’s viewing administration system enables you to request time slots, monitor appointments by a built-in calendar, and chat immediately with owners.
Within the app, customers can monitor all pending, accepted, and rejected presents, serving to them revisit properties, handle negotiations, and assessment favourites.
Kucing additionally options an interactive worth map, displaying 12 months of previous resale and rental transactions. Customers can zoom into particular districts to check land costs and property varieties—whether or not landed, non-landed, or HDB—serving to them make knowledgeable property selections. The map is accessible on the Kucing website, too.
Empowering owners whereas overcoming startup hurdles
Thus far, Kucing has attracted over 1,000 customers.
In keeping with Mathieu, one consumer was in a position to save “1000’s of {dollars}” when promoting their S$2 million property after itemizing it on Kucing for “only a few months.”
The app’s month-to-month subscription mannequin permits customers to pay just for what they want, making it extra inexpensive and accessible than conventional property platforms, the place businesses could cost further for property administration, lease renewals, tenant coordination, and different providers.
Mathieu added that this strategy empowers customers in methods standard portals can not.
However constructing a proptech app from scratch hasn’t been a simple journey.
Initially bootstrapped, Mathieu and Guillaume needed to fastidiously handle restricted sources, rising resourcefully till an angel investor contributed over S$300,000 this 12 months. The funds helped them scale operations and enhance their app.
Not too long ago, a global outage of Amazon’s cloud services, which Kucing relied on, briefly disrupted operations, however the small workforce of about 10 managed to revive the platform inside two weeks.
As entrepreneurs, the founders have additionally discovered the significance of focus.
Associates and advisors recommended incorporating providers like conveyancing, mortgage brokering, and insurance coverage immediately into the app. Whereas they experimented with these options, they quickly realised it was an excessive amount of to handle alone.
As a substitute, Kucing is seeking to associate with these specialised suppliers, giving customers entry to such skilled options whereas preserving the platform clear and user-centric.
Kucing’s bold roadmap
Kucing hasn’t damaged even but, nevertheless, the platform is seeking to safe a Sequence A funding spherical subsequent 12 months, with an bold roadmap aiming for 10,000 customers.
Upcoming updates embody refining the method of constructing presents and growing the itemizing threshold within the paid plan to accommodate brokers with a number of properties, which could be anticipated as early as Dec.
Slightly than changing brokers, Kucing seeks to “redefine and complement their roles inside a tech-enabled ecosystem.” The app he app might help them handle shoppers’ transactions at a extra inexpensive price slightly than paying 1000’s to spice up listings on conventional property portals every year.
Kucing can be creating an AI-powered digital assistant to behave as a “true property copilot”—suggesting listings, analysing market knowledge, and supporting data-driven decision-making to make property looking and itemizing simpler.
Finally, Guillaume emphasised that the platform’s finish objective is to be “a unified property house the place everybody has equal alternatives and might work together seamlessly.”
- Discover out extra about Kucing here.
- Learn different articles we’ve written on Singaporean startups here.
Featured Picture Credit score: Kucing
