Global private equity firm EQT has made an undisclosed-size growth investment to take a majority stake in Sydney-based proptech company PropertyMe.
Stockholm-based EQT (STO: EQT) has invested through its Barings Private Equity Asia Mid-Market Growth Partnership Fund BPEA IX. The fund follows the naming convention of Barings Private Equity Asia (BPEA) that EQT acquired in 2022. BPEA IX achieved a first close in April and is expected to reach a final close at its hard cap of $US14.5 billion ($22 billion) in early 2026.
Founded in 2013, PropertyMe offers an all-in-one, cloud-based software platform that helps property management and real estate agency businesses streamline their workflows from trust accounting and compliance to maintenance tracking and client communications. The PropertyMe platform is used by more than 6,000 agencies to manage around 1.9 million rental properties making it the largest property management software provider in Australia and New Zealand by number of properties managed. Almost $40 billion is transacted through the PropertyMe platform annually, including $2.4 billion through the company’s proprietary MePay payments platform.
In October, PropertyMe announced it had acquired Phoenix Software, which offered the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered Phoenix CRM (customer relationship management) software platform for real estate businesses. PropertyMe said at the time that it had made the acquisition to help it develop a seamless single ecosystem across sales, property management and payments.
Property Me’s founders are to retain a significant minority stake in the business and will transition to advisory and board member roles.
Experienced technology executive Brian Donn will become chief executive in early January. Donn has more than 25 years’ experience leading high growth software and services businesses and most recently led a team of 3,000 as managing director of Dayforce Asia Pacific and Japan.
Nicholas Macksey, Singapore-based partner in the EQT Private Capital Asia advisory team and head of the mid-market growth strategy, described PropertyMe as a standout in the proptech space.
Macksey said PropertyMe aligned perfectly with EQT’s thematic focus on supporting technology-driven solutions for essential industries.
“The company’s mission-critical software has become vital for thousands of property managers,” he said.
“We see significant opportunities to help PropertyMe scale its platform, introduce new services and expand into additional markets.”
Jacob Van der Wiel, Sydney-based EQT Private Capital Asia advisory team director, said the team had got to know the PropertyMe story and had seen firsthand the founders’ deep commitment to their customers.
PropertyMe founder Jason Tait said: “Our mission at PropertyMe has always been to modernise property management and empower real estate professionals with best-in-class software. We’re excited to embark on this next chapter with EQT as our partner.”
After 12 years, the founders felt this was the right time to take on an investment partner and transition to new leadership, Tait said. He was confident Donn’s experience in scaling-up software-as-a-service businesses would help lead PropertyMe into a new era of growth and innovation.
Donn said the PropertyMe team had built a leading platform with a best-in-class product.
“I see significant potential to build on this strong foundation and drive growth in both local and global markets,” he said.
The PropertyMe investment is EQT Private Capital Asia’s third platform software investment in Australia and the second backed by the Mid-Market Growth strategy.
EQT regards the developing strategy as a natural extension in the Asia Pacific region of its established large-cap buyout strategy which, since 2022 has acquired 10 technology companies representing a combined enterprise value of over $US7 billion.
Earlier investments under the Asia-Pacific Mid-Market Growth strategy include Compass Education in Australia, HRBrain in Japan, and global markets-focused Sri-Lanka-based open-source digital and AI services company WSO2 (Web Services Oxygen).
EQT also recently led a $US20 million ($30 million) investment in Sydney-based cyber security company Kasada.
EQT received financial advice on the PropertyMe transaction from Deloitte and legal advice from Corrs. Pier Capital, Alvarez & Marsal and law firm Jones Day, advised PropertyMe.
Image: PropertyMe helps real estate businesses streamline property management via a single online program.