A trio of former Deliveroo senior executives has garnered a whopping £2 million in investment for their new property search start-up, Jitty, which is poised to challenge leading portal Rightmove. The funding primarily stems from Gradient Ventures, which is an arm of tech giant Google focusing on Artificial Intelligence (AI) projects.
Graham Paterson, James Storer, and Daniel Cooper are the masterminds behind Jitty, a platform that harnesses the power of advanced language models and computer-vision technology. Its main selling point is its AI-driven ability to discern and interpret property floor plans, photographs, and detailed descriptions of homes with enhanced accuracy.
What makes Jitty stand out in the competitive online property listing arena is its unique approach to fees. A recent disclosure by Sky News highlighted that, contrary to prevalent industry norms, Jitty will not impose listing fees on estate agents or charge them for enquiries.
Several prominent venture capital entities, including Sequoia and Atomico, joined Gradient Ventures in backing Jitty’s recent funding initiative.
Elucidating the rationale behind the platform and its intriguing moniker, Jitty’s Chief Executive, Paterson, shared on LinkedIn: “A few months ago James, Daniel and I started working on a better way for people to discover and buy homes.” He narrated the duo’s brainstorming session, describing how their reminiscing about childhood memories associated with friends’ homes led to an exploration of the symbolic and physical transitions between homes. Their discussions eventually zeroed in on the term ‘jitty’, a colloquial Midlands term referring to an alleyway. The name resonated, and thus, Jitty was born.
With already 1,500 potential users lined up in their waitlist, the Jitty team seems poised for a promising launch.
