Exclusive: Loft completes purchase of Spry, which scales data collection and analysis.
Spry’s acquisition started last year. Startup will help the Brazilian unicorn of properties to analyze more data about properties and their potential customers.
The Loft , purchasing platform, renovation and sale of apartments, announced the completion of acquisition of Spry. The newest Brazilian startup with a billion dollar or unicorn market valuation will use the acquisition to collect and analyze more data about properties and their potential customers. The information was released exclusively for Small Companies & Large Businesses .
Spry is a startup that makes market research more scalable through technology. The enterprise registers researchers, who record market interviews through the application. The platform collects information quickly, with a decoupage program. Then, it real-time audits the data.
The startup has more than 50 thousand agents registered in more than 2.5 thousand Brazilian municipalities, offering wide coverage for businesses that need to listen to different audiences — as is the case of Loft.
The relationship with the unicorn of the estates dates back a long time. Florian Hagenbuch and Mate Pencz, co-founders of Loft with João Vianna, already used the service in their previous venture, the online printing company Printi.
“We knew the product and the founders [Alessandro Tieppo de Andrade and Fernando Salaroli]. At the same time, we had a shortage of talent in the data area, ”says Pencz.
Dating for the acquisition started last year. A similarity of culture between the Spry team and the Loft team helped to make the negotiation a reality. It was a prerequisite: after all, the entire research startup team will move on to the unicorn and work exclusively for it.
Some employees are already at the Loft office in São José dos Campos (São Paulo), focused on development and technology. Fernando Salaroli, founder of Spry, became director of the area at Loft.
“Participating in a company that is using technology to revolutionize a market with penetration as great as real estate motivated the sale. I believe that we will be able to further develop our services and it will be incredible to participate in this story ”, says Salaroli.
Spry remains open. There are 100 researchers in the field for Loft, who will be able to multiply. “We are prepared to serve Loft in all cities in Brazil and Latin America that it decides to launch.”
The acquisition will bring scalability in data processing for Loft. The unicorn will collect and process information on properties and potential customers more quickly. With this, he will follow the movements in each neighborhood and will know better who the residents are, what they are looking for in the reforms and how much they are willing to pay for the properties.
Loft is working with Spry in the neighborhoods of Moema, Jardim Paulista and Itaim Bibi (São Paulo). The expectation is to reach new neighborhoods and cities in the coming months, in a gradual rollout of the collection and analysis of data at scale.
The movement to buy a startup to reach its talents, also known as acqui-hiring , became popular in the United States a few years ago . In recent months, the movement has gained momentum in Brazil: the unicorns iFood, Loggi and Nubank have also recently announced acquisitions of startups.
The iFood bought Hekima the Loggi bought Worldsense while Nubank bought Plataformatec . Loft had previously announced the acquisition of Decorati, which brought scale to the renovations.
In Brazilian lands, acqui-hiring is stronger than ever — and arm in arm with unicorns.
