Immo, the tech-driven residential investment platform, has appointed a chief technology officer following a record-breaking $75 mln (€74 mln) Series B round.
Himai Mandali, who joins from European banking-as-a-service platform Solarisbank, will be responsible for further developing and enhancing Immo’s in-house technology-driven investment platform.
Mandali’s appointment, which will see him take up a newly created role, follows a year of rapid growth for Immo. In April, the company raised $75 mln in what remains Europe’s largest-ever proptech Series B round, and recently announced plans to spend £2.5 bn (€3 bn) acquiring and retrofitting over 10,000 homes across the UK, Germany, Spain & the EU to rent out under Immo’s living-as-a-service model.
Said Mandali: 'As Europe’s leading technology-led residential real estate investment platform, Immo benefits from an early-mover advantage in a sector that is attracting an ever-growing weight of capital.
'I believe the company has the potential to be Europe’s first proptech unicorn and will help unlock the world’s largest asset class - residential real estate - while also delivering positive environmental and social outcomes by providing sustainable, better quality rental housing.'
Immo - which has offices in the UK, India, Germany, and Spain - uses proprietary technology powered by artificial intelligence to identify, acquire, and refurbish existing homes before renting and managing them using Immo’s consumer tech platform.
Mandali’s appointment comes at a time when Immo is building out its data science and engineering teams, having grown significantly since the Series B fundraise and nearly doubled headcount to close to 200 staff worldwide.
In his new role as CTO, Mandali will also lead on ensuring consistency of standards as IMMO continues to scale its platform.
During his time at Solarisbank, Mandali led and managed globally distributed teams of over 350 engineers, and was responsible for migrating the bank’s systems, products and databases to the cloud - making Solaris the first to do so in Germany.
Between 2008 and 2019, Mandali spent 12 years at CapitalOne, an American bank where he most recently held the role of director of software engineering.
Avinav Nigam, co-founder and chief operating officer at Immo, said: 'Hima’s appointment as chief technology officer is a testament to the quality of talent we have been able to attract at Immo at all levels, having grown the team significantly since our landmark Series B fundraise.
'This is a crucial time for the business as we look to grow and scale our platform and having the right people is just as critical as having the right data and technology.'
